Robotech Macross WhatIf: On My Way To You
by Sphersian
Summary: A 'what-if' scenario that skewers and plays with the timeline just out of curiousity....What if the bridge crew had been injured in a direct hit? COMPLETED 9-19-03
1. IntroDisclaimer

Disclaimer: 

Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes, Claudia Grant, Sammie Porter, Vanessa Leeds, Kim Young, Admiral Gloval, General Maistroff, General Reinhardt, Max, Miriya, and Dana Sterling, Vince, Jean, and Bowie Grant and all other characters named in the original Robotech cartoon/books/comics/etc belong to their respective owners: Harmony Gold, Tatsunoko, whoever else, etc. I don't own them nor claim to own them so don't sue me because I don't have any money anyways, all you'll get is to inherit my huge amount of credit card debt. 

The timeline for this story is very very skewered. It takes place around the time before Lisa goes to earth (the 2nd time) to try and talk her father into negotiations with the Zentraedi. (This occurs after Rico, Konda, and Bron arrive on the SDF-1, episode.... 25? 26? I don't remember, but you know what I'm talking about :) ) Roy is still alive, and Max and Miriya have just gotten married. Rico, Konda, and Bron are still wandering around the SDF-1 so they haven't met with Gloval yet, so Lisa doesn't need to go back to earth again right at the moment. 

I don't know how long this story will be or how it will end up, I just had the preliminary concept for it. Like Aikiweezie and I'm sure other people, I was annoyed that the Bridge crew and Lisa in particular never got so much as a bruise on them. You'd think with all the battering that the SDF-1 took, that there'd be some type of damage to the bridge at least once. I also have a somewhat similar/alternate beginning for this story that I might post as a sidescript since it is a minor change really. 

This story is a 'what if...' type of deal more than anything and I would not want to see this replace any part of the Macross timeline, it's just a 'what if?...' :) Enjoy!   


  



	2. Part 1

Robotech Macross: "What If...?"   
Story 1

  


Lisa handed a coffee mug to Claudia then checked a few status reports and allowed her a moment's rest to sip her tea.   
"Honey, is there something wrong? You've been awfully quiet today," asked Claudia with concern.   
Lisa looked at Claudia quickly then looked away and shook her head, "Nothing really..."   
Claudia was about to press Lisa for more details when she heard the door swish open and the loud clatter of the Trio returning to their stations from their lunch break.   
"Hey Claudia, we saw Roy in the hallway, he said to tell you that he'll be over tonight around 8pm," said Kim, as Sammie and Vanessa giggled.   
Claudia held her head up proudly and smiled. Vanessa sat down in front of the large threat board and leaned back in her chair and said dreamily, "You're so lucky Claudia, to have a such a nice, strong, handsome man to share your life with."   
Kim and Sammie gave their "Mmmhmmm" in unison. Lisa stared into her cup. Her mind was a jumble of visions of Rick then visions of Karl then she remembered that neither man was with her and didn't share in her life. She had no one to share her life with really and it was a stark, cold, reality that Lisa could hardly bare sometimes. Karl was dead, and Rick... Rick had Minmei and made no attempt to hide that fact from Lisa. So with Miss Macross in Rick's life, what chance was there for Lisa? She knew the answer and didn't even have to think about it, one word said it crystal clear..._None_. Rick would never leave Minmei, let alone leave her for a woman whom he had called an old lady and whom he fought with a majority of the time they ever spoke to each other. _But they had become friends hadn't they? They didn't always fight like they used to. Things were getting better weren't they?_   
Lisa was only faintly aware of the chattering behind her. Most likely Claudia was telling the Trio about some crazy date that she and Roy had gone on or was telling them of the silly things Roy would do. _She's so lucky_, Lisa thought to herself. Then there was the Trio, though they were not attached to any particular suitor at the moment, they never lacked for dates and it would only be a matter of time before they too found someone special.   
And so the harsh reality hit Lisa between the eyes again, she was alone and would most likely always be alone, destined to rust away and age along with the SDF-1.   
"Lisa? Lisa are you alright?" asked Captain Gloval.   
Lisa turned around to find everyone staring at her. "What? I'm sorry," she mumbled out of her daze.   
"Lisa, Captain Gloval asked you to bring up the report of the scan of sector 17, didn't you hear him?" asked Claudia.   
Before Lisa could reply, Captain Gloval waved his hand and said, "It's alright Claudia, there's no rush. Lisa, are you sure you're feeling alright? You may take the rest of the day off if you'd like."   
Lisa shook her head, "No Captain, I'm alright. I'm sorry for my distraction. I'll have the scan report for you in just a moment."   
The rest of the bridge crew just looked at each other and then returned to their work. In five minutes Lisa was handing the report to Captain Gloval. He looked it over and then looked at Lisa, who still looked like she was bothered by something, and said to her, "Very good. Please take this down to Dr. Lang, I think he might find something very interesting here."   
"Yes sir," said Lisa quietly as she headed through the hatch.   
Gloval heaved a sigh then fixed his cap. He worried about Lisa. He had progressively seen her lose her concentration and composure and he was sure it had something to do with Rick Hunter. If Lisa didn't get back to her old self soon, for the sake of the ship, Captain Gloval would have to have her replaced. He loved Lisa dearly, as if she were his own daughter, and knew she was the most capable officer onboard, but he needed her to be focused 100% of the time.   
"Captain, do you want me to talk to her?" offered Claudia.   
"No, not yet. I think you and I should talk about her first and decide what we should do, then we'll approach her. I don't want her distracted more than she already seems to be," replied Gloval as he looked out the viewport.   
"Yes sir," said Claudia quietly, returning to her station.   
After receiving her expected report from a section chief, Kim leaned over in Sammie's direction and whispered, "Lisa's starting to scare me. I've never seen her like this."   
Sammie shook her head, "I know, me too."   
Gloval heard some whispering and cleared his throat and looked at Kim and Sammie, who immediately tried to look busy. Gloval knew he had to figure out something soon, he didn't like seeing Lisa in such a depressed mood, let alone the constant subject of gossip. He felt his paternal instincts kick in and felt the need to protect her. He had been witness to several of Lisa's and Admiral Hayes' arguments and knew that things were not well between the father and daughter and it saddened him to see it. 

Lisa had delivered the report to Dr. Lang and was on her way back to the bridge. She was in a daze as she walked mechanically back down the hallway, her eyes not really seeing anything. She heard the swish of an elevator door open to her right but kept on walking and bumped into Rick.   
"I'm sorry, I-" Lisa mumbled, but then stopped talking when she saw Rick and Roy standing in front of her.   
"Hey Lisa, sorry there. Rick has a bad habit of not watching where he's going," said Roy with a laugh as he slapped Rick on the back.   
Immediately both men noticed Lisa's downcast and confused demeanor.   
"Lisa, are you ok?" asked Roy with brotherly concern.   
Rick, not knowing what to do and somewhat taken back by Lisa's sad aura. He swung his head down a bit so he could look her in the eyes and asked, "Lisa...is there something wrong?" Lisa looked at him and saw the sincere concern in his blue eyes. She was hypnotized by them for a few seconds and then remembered that Rick belonged to someone else.   
Rick had been looking into Lisa's eyes and realized, perhaps truly for the first time that they were the most brilliant green he had ever seen. He saw a strange look in them, one he had seen often and couldn't understand, but this time the look was so intense that it not only confused him more than usual, but scared him as well. Then he saw the look change into one of complete sadness as Lisa looked away from him.   
"I...uhh...I better get back to the bridge, good afternoon gentlemen," said Lisa as she quickly hurried away.   
The several seconds of staredown was not lost on Roy and he turned to Rick and saw that he was watching Lisa as she walked away. Claudia had told him about the fact that Lisa was in love with Rick, but Roy had been so busy, and when he did have some free time, he spent it all with Claudia, so he really hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Rick and get a feel for what Rick thought of Lisa. Today he and Rick had been going over flight schedules but all Rick had talked about was Minmei and he was moping again that Roy didn't have the heart to confuse him anymore by bringing up Lisa.   
The sight of Lisa's solitary figure gave Rick a strange feeling that he had been having for several months now. Lisa's sad demeanor made him want to see if there was anything he could do to help her. He didn't know why he was so drawn to her sometimes. One day they could fight like cats and dogs and the next day they would be chatting like good friends. The bipolar nature of their relationship drove Rick crazy sometimes. He would either be mad at her and wish he'd never met her or he would be musing upon all of her positive qualities and what it would be like to get to know her better. One thing was sure though, that everytime Lisa showed some vulnerability, Rick had this unshakeable urge to want to take care of her, look out for her. And it wasn't really a brotherly feeling either, it was deeper than that, but everytime Rick started to analyze his feelings for Lisa, he got scared and pushed her out of his mind and turned his attention back to his neverending angst over Minmei.   
Roy decided to set Rick up a bit so he exaggerated a sigh and over-woefully stated, "Claudia and I are gonna have to figure out something to do to cheer that girl up soon. She's walking around like a zombie. I dunno what, but we better do something soon, we don't want her too..." and then Roy motioned with his hand, mimicking a drinking motion.   
Rick looked at Roy with confusion, "What are you talking about Roy?"   
Roy looked all around him then bent down a bit and said in a secretive fashion, "You know, we don't want her to hit the bottle." Roy cleared his throat then straightened up again and looked around him again.   
"What?? Lisa?" asked Rick, still confused.   
"Shhhhh!!!" said Roy quickly. "I'll tell you something, but you gotta promise not to say a word of it to anyone, alright? Otherwise Claudia will bust my head open, or worse, not let me sleep on her couch anymore."   
"I promise I won't tell a soul, you know I'm not a gossip," said Rick seriously.   
"I know, and I should hope not or else I'd think you'd been listening to the Trio too much, ah ha ha!" said Roy as he broke into laughter.   
Rick gave Roy a that's-not-funny look and Roy became serious again, "Alright, well, this happened right after you rescued her from Mars. Claudia and I were going into Macross City but Claudia had to stop by Lisa's quarters and drop something off, a report I think it was, and we didn't get any answer at the door. So Claudia became a little bit worried because she had called Lisa and Lisa said she was going to be home. Claudia thought Lisa had sounded a bit strange on the phone, so of course when she didn't answer the door, Claudia got a little bit panicked. Claudia knew Lisa's lock combination so she opened the door and when we got inside we found Lisa passed out on the couch with a wine bottle in her hand. We stayed with her until she woke up and Claudia tried to talk to her but Lisa didn't want to tell us why she had gotten drunk. But Claudia suspected it had to do with Mars Base, you know, her fiancee was killed there. Well, you know my Claudia, she got stern with Lisa and threatened that if she ever found Lisa drunk again that she'd kick her ass then turn her into to Captain Gloval for disciplinary action. Now mind you, she was doing this to scare Lisa into sobriety. She wouldn't really rat on Lisa like that. My Claudia's not a snitch," finished Roy, and then he folded his arms and leaned against the wall to see how the story would sink into Rick's mushy brain.   
Suddenly, before Rick had had even a few seconds to think about what Roy said, the red alert sounded and Rick and Roy scrambled to their VTs.   
  


Lisa arrived on the bridge running and quickly got on the comm to dispatch the VT squadrons.   
"Sir, status report. Wide-range radar shows a group of about 5 enemy destroyers heading our way, about 8 dozen battlepods ahead of them sir," reported Vanessa.   
"Alright, Lisa, Claudia, make sure we've got plenty of VTs ready. Sammie, tell the section chiefs there will be no modular transformation back to the lateral, we will stay as is, incase we need to use the Daedelus Attack. Kim, tell the Pinpoint Barrier crew to standby," ordered Gloval, concisely but not frantically.   
"Yes sir!" answered the highly-trained women in unison.   
After 15 minutes Skull Squardon and Vermillion Squadron were ready to launch. "Skull Leader you are cleared to move to sector 7-D, Vermillion you are to fly close support," said Lisa flatly.   
"Hey now waita minute Lisa. It looks like sector 7-G needs some cover over there, why don't you send us over there. I'm sure Roy can take care of himself. As much as I enjoy flying along side my Big Brother, I think Vermillion needs to be where the action is," protested Rick.   
Claudia looked over at Lisa and could almost see the steam coming out of her ears, she also heard Lisa's foot tapping, an indication she was trying to keep control of her temper.   
"Sector 7-G is going to be covered by Raven Squadron, stay where you are until further orders," bit out Lisa.   
Rick shook his head in anger and blanked communications with Lisa, but remained where he was, something that surprised both Roy and Lisa.   
Thirty minutes after intense battlepod-to-VT fighting, the Zentraedi destroyers moved into a wedge formation and moved in closer to the SDF-1.   
"Pinpoint Barrier online, now!" ordered Gloval.   
"Yes, sir. Bridge to Pinpoint Barrier, go live, repeat, this is not a drill, go live," said Kim calmly and professionally.   
"Going live now bridge, 5 minutes till maximum operating capacity," reported a Pinpoint Barrier tech.   
In his VT, Rick was growing increasingly restless as he saw a flurry of activity in sector 7-G. He got on his comm channel to Roy and said, "Big Brother, I'm taking Vermillion over to 7-G, I think they really need help out there."   
Roy chuckled and said, "Fine with me, but I ain't going to be the one to tell Lisa about it, you gotta do that yourself."   
Rick switched over to Max and Miriya and said, "Ok Mr. and Mrs. Sterling, we are going to head over to sector 7-G."   
"Roger Vermillion Leader," answered both Max and Miriya.   
A few minutes after Rick and his squad started heading towards sector 7-G, Lisa came up on Rick's comm channel, very irrate, "Vermillion Leader, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"   
"I'm taking my squad to help out in 7-G," replied Rick.   
"Negative, you are suppose to stay with Skull Squadron," retorted Lisa.   
"Listen _Commander_ Hayes. Haven't we been over this before?? How many times do I have to tell you that _you_ aren't out here and that you can't really get an accurate picture of who needs help where. Just because it looks all fine and dandy on your monitors doesn't mean everything is fine and dandy!" said Rick, pointing an accusing finger at Lisa.   
"Is there a problem Commander Hayes," Rick heard Gloval say in the background.   
Rick knew that if Lisa told Captain Gloval, there'd be grounds for a reprimand for insubordination. Lisa looked at Rick, grateful that his helmet visor was tinted and she couldn't see his face or his blue eyes. After a few moments of silence she closed her eyes and then said over her shoulder ,"No sir, there is no problem here."   
Rick looked at Lisa to show her some type of sign of appreciation but she didn't look at him and shut off the visual communication channel.   
"Vermillion Squadron, you may proceed to sector 7-G," said Lisa quietly.   


Lisa let her mind wander for a few seconds, she couldn't and wouldn't purposely get Rick in trouble. No matter how annoying and immature he could be, she couldn't do it. She knew that Rick seemed to have a natural leadership talent that could take him far and she didn't want to jeopardize or tarnish that. But why did it matter to her so much? He obviously wouldn't appreciate or even notice it. He noticed nothing except Miss Macross. So Lisa wondered why should she waste her time and reputation to help Rick out? The answer was simple, because she loved him. Why? Because he was the first one brave enough to tell her how he saw her, because he was the only on brave enough to talk back to her, because he made the safety of his subordinates and fellow soldiers and citizens his number one priority, because he could be kind and funny and caring and interesting and because he had the prettiest blue eyes she ever seen and because he was handsome. All these reasons had been torturously preying on her mind ever since Max and Miriya's wedding. Maybe because attending the wedding made her think about what it might've been like if she and Karl had been able to get married, or what it would be like to marry Rick. And while everyone was enjoying the wedding reception, Lisa left the party early to go back to her lonely quarters and lament over what could've been and face her lonliness demons again.   
"LISA!" shouted Captain Gloval.   
Lisa turned around, wearing yet another confused look. Captain Gloval walked over to her station and said, "Lisa, please help Claudia prepare the main gun, now."   
"Yes sir," mumbled Lisa, her face feeling hot with embarrassment.   
After Claudia and Lisa reported that the main gun was ready, Gloval looked back at Sammie and said, "Sammie, give me bridge closed-circuit comm. All outgoing or external audio is to be paused."   
Sammie did as she was ordered and then Captain Gloval turned towards Kim and said quickly, "After communications resume, tell Lieutenant Robertson to get up here immediately."   
Kim looked at Lisa then at Gloval and said meekly, "Yes sir."   
Everyone knew that Lt. Robertson was Lisa's backup. Calling her in now meant that Gloval was going to relieve Lisa of her duties.   
Gloval looked at Lisa with a sympathetic look and said quietly, "Lisa, please go home and get some rest. We will talk about this tommorrow."   
Lisa opened her mouth to protest but no words came out. She saluted and quickly left the bridge. 

* * * * * * * 

"Khyron you idiot!! What in Dolza's name do you think you are doing?!" barked Azonia as her face appeared on the viewscreen.   
"Do not bother me now woman! I am about to destroy the SDF-1!!" exclaimed Khyron.   
"Nonesense you fool!! I will destroy your ships myself if I have to. We are NOT to touch the SDF-1 until Dolza gives us further orders. Do not ruin the victory Khyron," warned an impatient Azonia.   
Khyron glared at her for awhile then let out a long growl and said, "Grel ! Recall the pods and move the destroyer group back."   
Azonia smiled a satisfied smile and said in a somewhat sarcastic tone, "Thank you Khyron."   
Before Khyron could reply, Azonia's image disappeared from the screen. Khyron quickly whirled around and said, "Grel?! Did you hear that? She _thanked_ me?!"   
"I believe thats what it seems like lord Khyron," answered Grel.   
"Impossible..." said Khyron quietly, rubbing his chin. "She is strange I tell you!"   
"If you say so sir," replied Grel.   
"I have not come in contact before with someone such as her. She nags me then she thanks me? What is that all about?" asked Khyron.   
"Sir, perhaps you are thinking about this more than is necessary," offered Grel.   
"More than necessary?! What do you mean?" barked Khyron.   
"Well, sir, everytime you talk to Lady Azonia you go through the rest of the day talking about her," explained Grel.   
"Well she drives me crazy! What am I suppose to do?" said Khyron.   
"I don't know sir, just don't think about her, that's all," said Grel.   
"Yes yes, Grel you're absolutely right. I don't want that idiot woman taking up my valuable time," said Khyron as he looked at the monitors. "Very well Grel, take us out of here immediately, before Azonia comes back and nags me again."   
"Yes sir," replied Grel.   
Khyron went to sit in his commander's chair and remained quiet for awhile then mused, "Why does that woman enjoy nagging me?"   
Grel looked over at his commander and was about to reply when he decided it would be in vain and turned back to issuing withdrawl orders. 

* * * * * * * 

"Lieutenant Hunter, please give me a status report," said Lt. Robertson over the comm channel.   
Rick was surprised to hear Lt. Robertson and the first thing out of his mouth was, "Where's Lisa?"   
Lieutenant Robertson replied, "She's in her quarters...she's not feeling well so I was called in to replace her."   
"What? But I was just talking to her a minute ago. What's wrong with her?" asked Rick, still confused as to why Lisa left the bridge.   
"Lieutenant Hunter, please give me your status report. I cannot give you any information on Commander Hayes other than what I was told," said Robertson, who was starting to grow impatient.   
Rick gave her his status report and after another half hour, the Zentraedi had fallen back completely and the VTs were recalled home.   


Rick trotted to catch up with Roy. "Roy, wait up!"   
"Sorry Rick, can't join you for dinner tonight, I have myself a date with Claudia. It was postponed for the longest time, now we finally get to go out," said Roy happily.   
"Yeah ok Roy, but I just wanna know what happened to Lisa," said Rick with concern.   
Roy stopped his quick pace and looked at Rick, "What for?"   
"Well, I was just concerned about her that's all. She's my friend," said Rick quietly.   
"Friend?? Well the way you two fight, you sure could've fooled me!" said Roy with a laugh.   
Rick grew impatient, he was tired and in no mood for wisecracks. "Come on Roy, we don't _always_ fight," said Rick with exasperation.   
Roy folded his arms and became more serious, "So, did my little story this afternoon get you thinking about Lisa differently?"   
"Well, not really, I mean, not yet, I haven't had a chance to sit down and think about it all yet," said Rick. "But...I just want to know why she didn't rat on me and why she went home sick. You know as well as I do that she's the third most important person on this ship, aside from Gloval and Lang, and there'd be no reason to just relieve her of duty, even if she were sick. She's been sick before and has come into work," reasoned Rick.   
Roy knew that Rick had been thinking about the situation just as he had, only Roy had thought out a possible motive that he assumed hadn't even crossed Rick's mind yet, that Lisa had been relieved of duty and not because of medical reasons. Roy didn't want to raise anymore concern from Rick so he patted Rick on the shoulder and said, "Hey, don't worry about it. I'll ask Claudia later on, I'm sure she knows what's going on. Now go into town and relax and have fun, Minmei is suppose to be giving another concert isn't she? Why don't you head over there."   
When the name 'Minmei' came up, Rick felt confused more than before. He realized he had forgotten all about the concert. When he woke up in the morning that was all he could think about, but now, after all these strange happenings with Lisa, he actually didn't even feel like going to see Minmei. '_Minmei will understand, heck, she probably won't even know or care if I went or not_,' thought Rick. '_Frankly, I wouldn't feel right going out and having a good time knowing that a friend of mine might need my help_,' pondered Rick, thinking of Lisa. '_I better go thank her for not ratting on me, and see if she's ok_...' 

After a ten minutes walk, Rick turned the corner and headed down the corridor that led to the bridge crew quarters. He heard the sound of voices from a room a few feet ahead of him and as he got closer he recognized the voices as the Trio's.   
"Hey Kim, I'm kinda nervous about being asked to train as Lisa's backup," said Sammie.   
When Rick heard the name 'Lisa' he immediately froze outside the door and waited to see what else was said.   
"Don't worry Sam, you'll do fine," said Kim nonchalantly.   
"Yeah I know, but I mean, I don't feel right, if I were to be asked to replace Lisa, like Robertson was today," said Sammie in a downcast tone.   
"I know Sammie but don't you think Lisa would rather be replaced by a friend than someone who's not a friend? I mean at least she'd know you weren't trying to steal her job on purpose," offered Kim.   
"Well, this shouldn't even be an issue in the first place if Lisa would stop spacing out at the most inopportune times," said Vanessa.   
"Vanessa! It's not Lisa's fault, go blame that jerk Rick Hunter!" scolded Kim.   
Rick felt a cold chill go down his spine, how was any of this his fault?   
"Yeah," said Sammie, "I don't know why Lisa covered up for him today, he doesn't deserve it."   
Vanessa shook her head, "This is terrible to watch you know. I mean, did you ever in a million years ever think you'd see Captain Gloval relieve Lisa of her duty?"   
"Well, you think we feel bad about it, can you imagine what Lisa must be thinking right now?" asked Kim.   
Vanessa sighed, "Poor Lisa, I guess the wedding really put her down in the dumps. And she used to be so tough too. But I guess now everything's just too overwhelming for her to keep bottled up inside."   
Sammie snapped her fingers and said, "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we take her out on the town next week?"   
Kim perked up and said, "That's a _great_ idea Sammie."   
Rick heard some commotion from behind him and quickly started walking on his way, not able to finish listening to the Trio's plans.   
Rick was now completely confused. He was about to analyze how he might've been responsible for getting Lisa relieved from her duties but his cellphone rang. He read the caller ID and it said 'Minmei.' Rick let it ring a few more times, wrestling over whether he should answer it or not, and wondering why he was hesitating. Didn't he always jump at the chance to talk to Minmei? So why, now, was he hesitating and worrying about Lisa instead? He didn't know the answer to that question. Rick went ahead and answered the call.   
"Hi Rick! This is Minmei!" chirped Minmei.   
"Yes, I know it's you Minmei," replied Rick.   
Minmei giggled and said, "Oh! Were you waiting for my call?? That was sweet of you. Well, as you know, as _everyone_ knows, I'm having a concert tonight. I've arranged for you to have backstage passes! You can keep me company after the show, since Kyle has to attend a meeting right after the show. He said it's an important contract negotiation and he can't miss it. Please say you'll come Rick, I will be bored if you don't come and keep me company after the show."   
Rick was only ten feet from Lisa's door and he was completely torn as to what he should do.   
"Please come Rick," asked Minmei again.   
Rick sighed and then said, "Alright, I'll come Minmei."   
"Oh Rick, you're the best! You better come over now, so that way you can get in before the crowd," said Minmei.   
"Ok Minmei, I'll be there in a bit," answered Rick.   
Rick walked up to Lisa's door and struggled over whether he should ring or not. If he started talking to Lisa now then he would be late getting to Minmei's concert. On the other hand, he was still worried about Lisa, and what he overheard the Trio saying didn't ease his worries. But if he were the reason why Lisa got relieved from duty then he expected that she would be pretty mad at him, and he didn't want to argue with her and arrive to Minmei's concert in a bad mood. Rick looked at Lisa's door one more time then decided to turn around and head towards Macross City, all the while, a little voice in the back of his mind was telling him he had made the wrong decision. 

* * * * * * * 

"So did he knock on her door?" asked Claudia as she took a sip of her white wine.   
"No, he didn't, he got a phone call, from Minmei possibly, and stared at Lisa's door and left," replied Roy as he finished his up his dinner.   
Claudia folded her hands and sat back in her chair and watched Roy pour them another glass of wine, "Well. He got to her door at least, I suppose that's a start," said Claudia.   
Roy put down the bottle and stared at his glass as he said, "I suppose... I'm sorry Claudia, I should've encouraged him to go see Lisa instead of Minmei. I was in such a hurry to get to our date that I went on auto-pilot with Rick I guess."   
Claudia gave Roy a satisfied smile and said, "Well Mr. Fokker, I'm glad to know at least that I'm the top priority on your list."   
Roy winked at Claudia then became a bit more serious and said, "We've been so busy that I really haven't been able to get the chance to talk to Rick about Lisa. Can you imagine that?? No time to do anything. I'm surprised we even have time now for this date."   
"Shhh...don't knock on wood, we don't want the red alert to go off," whispered Claudia.   
Roy smirked at her as he opened up the dessert menu, "Alright, are you having your usual tonight?"   
"Um, no actually, I think I'll have a slice of apple pie," replied Claudia with an expectant look.   
"Apple pie?! What on earth made you want to order apple pie?" asked Roy, surprised at Claudia's choice of dessert.   
Claudia chuckled and replied, "Well, the Trio had on an oldies station and one of the songs that played was 'American Pie.'"   
As expected, Roy broke into a chorus of the song and sang a good one-third of it. Claudia smiled; she expected that Roy would break into song. His carefree nature was one of the many things she loved about him.   


"Oh Rick! I'm so glad you could make it! And you dressed up tonight, you look so handsome, thank you for coming!" said Minmei excitedly.   
"Uh...sure Minmei, it was my pleasure," answered Rick, a bit uncomfortable with all the stagecrew and entertainment management staff flittering around them as Minmei pulled Rick by the arm towards a private room.   
"Miss Minmei, who is this handsome young man, is he your boyfriend?," asked one reporter from behind a nearby media barricade.   
Minmei laughed, "Oh no, this handsome man is my good friend, Rick Hunter. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be out later and talk to you but right now I have to catch dinner, I'm starving!" Minmei turned and posed for one more picture then motioned for Rick to follow her.   
_'Just a friend huh? That's all I ever was and all I ever will be I suppose...' _mused Rick as he stuck his hands in his pockets and followed Minmei.   
Minmei and Rick spent an hour eating a large Japanese dinner and Rick had hardly been able to get in a word. In between sushi rolls and tempura, Minmei jabbered on about what she was doing and what upcoming projects she had, what Kyle was doing, and what her fans were like. Once she stopped to ask Rick how he was doing but then remembered something she forgot to tell him about her latest single and went on into her little world again, where the only thing that mattered to her was her career and her fans. As the hour wore on Rick grew more resigned to the fact that he was talking to a very self-centered person. He wanted to tell her about the things he had gone through since they last saw each other, but not only would Minmei not bother to take the time to listen, but she would also most likely not understand, nor care, for that matter.   
As Minmei rambled on, Rick sighed and tuned out her voice, which had become very annoying after listening to it non-stop for an hour. His mind wandered back to the last civil conversation he had had with Lisa and that was over a cup of coffee in the Officer's Mess. They were deciding what to do with one particularly clumsy VT pilot and they had a few laughs at the pilots expense. Again, it amazed Rick how sharp-witted Lisa could be, on the rare occassion that she loosened up and allowed her humorous and mischievious side to show. She had made some comment about the pilot that was so funny that Rick couldn't stop laughing, and when he did, he was in tears and his stomach hurt from all the laughing he did. He didn't tell her how impressed he was with her humor that day, and now he regretted not telling her. The latest events had been filling Rick with a lot of guilt during the evening he spent with Minmei. _I should've at least stopped by quickly to see if Lisa was ok.._. Rick thought to himself.   
"Rick? Rick Hunter are you listening to me?" asked Minmei.   
"Huh?? Oh yes Minmei, of course," answered Rick cheerfully, trying to hide the fact that he was lying.   
Minmei giggled, "Oh you silly boy, well, anyways as I was saying...." 

* * * * * * * Lisa stared up at the ceiling blankly. She was lying down on her couch, still in her uniform. She had been relieved of duty, and she had no one to blame but herself. '_Dammit Lisa, why can't you concentrate, you used to be as tough as steal. But now...look at you...what would your father say if he found out..._' Lisa berated herself in her thoughts, her voice angry and ashamed at her failure to be the best. But then another voice inside her mind fought back, _'But don't I deserve some happiness too?? Why does it always have to be work work work. It's so lonely, there's only so much isolation I can take...'_   
Lisa got up slowly and went to the bathroom to shower and change. After she was finished she sat down on her bed and stared out the viewport. A song started playing in her head, one she played often in her mind when she was feeling in a particularly self-injuring mood... 

_Time,_   
_Won't ease my memory,_   
_It's killing me now._   
_And Lord, how I need him here,_   
_Just to feel him near,_   
_And hear him breathing._

_Still,_   
_The night goes on and on,_   
_Another lonely song, I'm singing._   
_Lord, don't think bad of me,_   
_Don't get mad at me,_   
_You know I'm weak._

_And it couldn't cause a whole lot of harm,_   
_To be in somebody's arms...._   
_ (1)_

Lisa stood up and paced around the room angrily and said, "This has got to stop, some way some how, I can't go on like this much longer." 

* * * * * * * 

The next day... 

Captain Gloval lit his pipe then turned to Lisa and Claudia and said, "Lisa, I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I think it would be best if you take some time off."   
"Sir, I'm very sorry. Please give me another chance. I really have nothing else to do if I don't have work," replied Lisa, her hands folded.   
"That's the problem Lisa. You need to find something else to do besides work," said Claudia quietly.   
"I think Claudia is right Lisa. Perhaps work is putting a strain on you, you should consider taking some time off to relax a bit," offered Gloval.   
"But we are still in daily combat with the Zentraedi, you need me on the bridge sir," replied Lisa, feeling a bit of panic seize her.   
"I need you at 100 percent Lisa, I can't have you spacing out at the worst times," said Gloval as he stood up to look out of the window.   
Claudia put her arm on Lisa's shoulder but Lisa moved away. Claudia was surprised but continued with what she was going to say, "Lisa, please take our suggestion. It's for your own good as well as the ships."   
Lisa looked at Claudia with horror and ask, "You mean, you think I'm a danger to the ship?!"   
Gloval turned around and tried to calm Lisa down, "Lisa, please try and see it from our perspective-"   
Gloval's comm toned and he answered it to hear, "Captain sir, this is Vanessa. Sir, I think you should get up right away. We've got another attack force similar to yesterdays headed fast and furious towards us. I'm ready to sound Red Alert on your command sir."   
Gloval looked out a different window than the one he was starting out of earlier and saw the lights in the distance. "Go ahead, go to Red Alert," he replied and then turned to Lisa and Claudia and said, "Alright Lisa, this is your chance to show me you're able to work like you used to." Lisa nodded and quickly headed towards the bridge.   


Lisa hesitated before giving Vermillion squadron their takeoff orders. After she finally gave them, Rick came onscreen and said, "Lisa, are you alright? Why did you leave the bridge yesterday?"   
Lisa took a deep breath, knowing that Gloval was watching her and Claudia was listening nearby. "Lieutenant Hunter...I'm fine. Thank you for your concern but I can't chit-chat now, please proceed to sector 19," said Lisa, a little bit more irrately than she should have.   
Rick, having spent half the night worry about Lisa and half the night lamenting over Minmei having said that he was just a friend, let his tiredness from his insomnia get the better of him and bit out, "Jeez, I was just trying to be nice and ask how you were doing. Fine! Next time I'm not going to ask."   
Rick switched off communication and took his squad to their assigned sector.   
Lisa took a deep breath, trying to control her frustration. Claudia leaned over and said, "Just forget about it now. Concentrate, or you'll be packing for your vacation."   
Lisa looked over and gave her an appreciative nod. She knew that, blunt as she was, Claudia always had the best intentions and was looking out for Lisa. 

The fighting was intense for about 3 hours. VT squads came back and forth to the carrier decks for rearmament and refueling. Gloval sat in his chair and wondered what the enemy could be planning. He rubbed his chin and then mused, "I wonder why their battleships have not fired on us yet. It's as if they just want to tire out our pilots."   
"Sir! Another battlegroup has just defolded behind the first one," said Vanessa.   
Gloval got up to look at her board. There was indeed a new battlegroup and he had Vanessa zoom in.   
"Sir, I don't believe we have seen that class of ship before sir," said Vanessa as he stared at her giant monitor.   
Kim punched up some commands on her terminal and reported, "There's no identification for that ship sir."   
Sammie turned around to look at Vanessa's board and gave a confused look, saying, "Those ships are awfully small compared to the usual Zentraedi vessels."   
"Small can be dangerous," said Claudia quietly.   
"Claudia, Lisa, how are the VTs and destroids holding out?" asked Gloval.   
"It appers the enemy groups are retreating sir," answered Claudia.   
"Should we issue the orders to pursue Captain?" asked Lisa, seemingly performing at maximum efficiency.   
"Have them stand down, I'm sure they are all exhausted. But keep some squads up to patrol, just incase they decide to come back," ordered Gloval.   


"What do you mean we have to stay out?? I need to get my squad back to the ship to refuel," protested Rick.   
Lisa let out a tired sigh, "Lieutenant, you have plenty of fuel for one patrol."   
"What if the pod groups come back? I am not willing to risk my team being stuck out here with low fuel. You should know by now that I always take my team in when we are half empty. I don't take chances with my squad," said Rick. He was drop dead exhausted and in no mood to have yet another argument with Lisa.   
"Sir, I think we should be ok with what we have now," said Max politely.   
"Nothing doing Max, you know my policy. Now Lisa, give us the go ahead to come back," ordered Rick.   
"Sir! Battleship group and that new group is moving in Captain," reported Vanessa.   
"Sammie, tell all section chiefs to be on high alert, Kim, make sure Pinpoint Barrier is standing by," said Gloval.   
"Negative Rick, stay where you are," said Lisa as she checked Vanessa's monitor.   
Rick saw the ships moving in and noticed the new group which had ships he'd never seen before. "Uh...Lisa, what kind of ships are those?"   
"We don't know yet, we're still trying to get some type of ID on them," reported Lisa distractedly, as she tried to get an overview of where all the squads were with reference to the incoming ships. Lisa overheard Miriya on the channel briefly and quickly turned around, "Captain! Miriya Sterling! Do you think she'll be able to identify those ships?"   
Gloval took off his cap and rubbed the sweat from his forehead, "Why on earth didn't I think of that? Vanessa send her all you can and see if she can identify the ships."   
After sending the schematics over to Miriya's computer, Vanessa waited nervously for Miriya's answer.   
"Captain...Captain!! Those are multi-channel jammers!" said Miriya, going from a whisper to a panic.   
"What does that mean?" asked Gloval, his heart racing at the sound of Miriya's panic.   
Before Miriya could answer, Vanessa shouted, "Captain! High energy coming from those ships!" Two seconds after that the bridge was illuminated by an eerie blue light from the dozens of beams that were heading directly towards the ship.   
"Pinpoint Barrier!" shouted Gloval.   
Silence fell over the ship as the light from the beams disappeared. Gloval looked around at his crew. There were no explosions of any type and from briefly glancing at Sammie's and Kim's monitors, all sectors of the ship were still intact.   
"Sir! Pinpoint Barrier offline!" shouted Kim.   
Gloval ran to Kim's station to take a look only to hear Vanessa behind him, "Sir! Battleship group closing in fast!"   
Lisa got on her channel to check on the VTs, "All squad leaders report!"   
"Sir! Another battlegroup is defolding!" shouted Vanessa.   


"Khyron!!!!!!" screamed Azonia. "Stop it this instant!"   
"No!!!!! Idiot woman leave me alone!! I have the SDF-1 where I want it!! Behold, as I am about to destory it!" shouted Khyron.   
Azonia motioned to someone on her left and in a few seconds Khyron got reports that half of his ships had been fired upon by Azonia's group. 

"Captain! The new battlegroup has just fired upon the old battlegroup and has also wiped out the jammer group!" relayed Vanessa with relieved confusion.   
Gloval stood behind her and couldn't believe what he saw, "Are they having some kind of civil war? They had us right in their grip. Keep trying to get the Pinpoint Barrier back online, we don't want to take any chances." Gloval watched as Khyron's battlegroup was whittled down to just two ships. 

Khyron fumed and began pounding his fist into the console he was standing in front of. He knew he could do nothing but retreat, lest he face death at the hands of Azonia, and that would be humiliating for him. He thought about firing on her ship, nothing would give him more pleasure, but he knew he would be exiled to some distant galaxy where there was nothing to destroy but asteroids. That was worse than death for him, so he turned around and issued his orders to retreat, after one more action... 

"Look, they're retreating, so what's the harm in coming in to refuel now?" asked Rick.   
Lisa closed her eyes and shook her head, wishing that Max or Miriya were squadron leader instead of Rick.   
"Alright, fine! We'll stay out here but tell me how much fuel capacity my squad has. That way, the next time we have this problem, you can do the math yourself, since you don't believe me," grated Rick.   
"Is this really necessary?" moaned Lisa.   
"I'm just asking you a simple question?? Is that too much to ask?" said Rick, now starting to irritate everyone else on the bridge.   
"You can hold 250 gallons," answered Lisa.   
"Wrrrrong," retorted Rick. "We are in the new modified VTs, in case you've forgotten. I suggest you go look it up in the manual, since you don't know."   
"Those modifieds hold 300 gallons," replied Lisa.   
"No, wrong again. Are you sure you know what you're doing?" said Rick.   
Lisa went livid, she sat in on the design process of those fighters and knew they held 300 gallons. She stamped over to the front of the bridge, where the technical manuals were, determined to put Rick Hunter back in his place. 

"Grel!! Fire now!" shouted Khryon. 

"Captain!!!!!" yelled Vanessa. At the sound of the extreme panic in her voice, both Claudia and Gloval hurried over to stand behind Vanessa and look at what she was so panicked about. 

"Damn, jerk!" mumbled Lisa to herself as she was rummaging around the bookshelf, obviously not noticing Vanessa's yell of distress. "How on earth does he think he can get away with being such an a---hole!" 

Claudia and Gloval and Vanessa all stared at the monitor, temporarily frozen in their place, then through the speakerphone came the panicked voice from the Pinpoint Barrier room, "Bridge!! Pinpoint Barrier still inoperative, GET OUT OF THERE!"   
Sammie glanced at Vanessa's screened and her mouth dropped open but she couldn't scream, thankfully though she managed to get her legs moving and headed towards the door. Kim stumbled out of her seat after her, Gloval grabbed Vanessa's arm and followed, trying to push Kim through the door. 

"CLAUDIA!! GET OUT OF THERE!!" yelled Roy. From his seat in his VT he could see the beam was heading straight for the bridge. 

Lisa looked up and saw a blinding light coming straight at her... 

-------------- 

to be continued..... 

This will be a short story that leaves the ending wide-open and I invite and encourage people to write their own conclusions :) 

Songs:   
(1) Tammy Wynette - "Another Lonely Song"   


**to anyone and everyone PLEASE UPDATE/WRITE YOUR STORIES!! I NEED MORE RICK-LISA / HIKARU-MISA STUFF TO READ!! :)**   
thanks!   
---------- 

Boy, it feels strange writing a fanfic with Roy in it, but....   
WELCOME BACK OLD BUDDY!!! how many people besides me miss good old Roy Fokker?? :) This Roy is a mix of the Macross Roy, who was more boisterous, and the more low-keyed Robotech Roy. Hopefully as the story progresses, I can get a hang of writing Roy's character, so please bear with me, I have no practice writing Roy! 

And, yes yes, I know, I tend to be stuck on the notion that Lisa has a bad time with alcohol, but this is the only time when it will be an issue in this story. 

I think that we never really got to see how Khyron and Azonia finally got together. They hated each other and fought like cats and dogs and then ended up together, but we never really saw it develop, so I thought I'd write a little bit on it. They remind me of how Rick and Lisa started out, always at each others throats. LOL!   



	3. Part 2

Robotech Macross: "What If...?"   
Story 1 part 2

  


authors note: Beware, emotionally intense action ahead (at least I hope so, if I did my job correctly LOL). Some scenes of blood and gore (sort of).   


Claudia and Gloval and Vanessa all stared at the monitor, temporarily frozen in their place, then through the speakerphone came the panicked voice from the Pinpoint Barrier room, "Bridge!! Pinpoint Barrier still inoperative, GET OUT OF THERE!"   
Sammie glanced at Vanessa's screen and her mouth dropped open but she couldn't scream, thankfully though she managed to get her legs moving and headed towards the door. Kim stumbled out of her seat after her, Gloval grabbed Vanessa's arm and followed, trying to push Kim through the door. 

"CLAUDIA!! GET OUT OF THERE!!" yelled Roy. From his seat in his VT he could see the beam was heading straight for the bridge. 

Lisa looked up and saw a blinding light coming straight at her... 

Khyron's two remaining ships immediately fell back and Azonia stayed in the vicinity, to make sure Khyron didn't try anything else. 

"All VT's may return to base, repeat, all VTs return to base," said a technician from the auxillary bridge.   
"Medical and damage control teams needed on the bridge immediately!" shouted another tech.   
"What's going on up there??" demanded Roy.   
"I'm sorry sir, the bridge has taken a direct hit, we are on emergency backup procedures at the auxillary bridge," reported a tech.   
"Where's the captain?? What about the rest of the bridge crew?" asked Roy with extreme worry.   
"Medical teams are down there now sir," reported the tech again.   
"Dammit!" growled Roy as he raced back to the flight hanger. 

Rick had seen the direct hit and had heard the fear in Roy's voice. _The bridge took a direct hit. What did that mean? Did everyone get out? Is anyone hurt? Is anyone.... The bridge took a direct hit_... the sentence didn't register in Rick's mind. He felt numb. Why did he feel this way, he wondered to himself. Just awhile ago he was having yet another fight with Lisa. Now he was staring at a screen of static where he would normall see her face... He had told her to go look up the fuel capacity in her manual... where were the manuals?? If he remembered correctly, they were at the extreme forward section of the bridge... he looked at the bridge again and zoomed in... the extreme forward section of the bridge was gone. His heart began to pound so hard he thought he was going to have a heartattack. He raced after Roy, and hit his afterburners, being in the modified VT, Rick was able to catch up to Roy and both men jumped out of their fighters and ran towards the bridge. 

Roy seemed oblivious to Rick running alongside him. The only thing that was on Roy's mind now was to get to Claudia and make sure she was alright. Rick was aware that Roy was in a panic. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen Roy so frightened, if ever.   
As Rick followed Roy up to the bridge he started feeling sick. What if Lisa were injured? Then it would be his fault, because he insisted she go look in the manual. And if she were still at that part of the bridge when the direct hit came in....   
After what seemed like forever, Roy made it to the corridor that led to the bridge. There were gawkers lining the walls of the corridors and Roy had to push his way through the crowd.   
"Stay back!" shouted one paramedic.   
Roy and Rick saw Sammie standing off to the side near the bridge doorway. She was crying and had a blanket over her shoulders.   
"Get back! We need space to work here" shouted a doctor as he tried to push the nosey people away.   
There was smoke coming through the bridge hatch and they could hear the sound of a firehose trying to put out the various electrical fires that were still smoldering.   
As Rick and Roy got closer to the door they saw Gloval stumble through the doorway, being helped by a general and a paramedic.   
"Captain, we need to check you out first, then you can return to duty," explained the paramedic.   
"My crew..." croaked Gloval, "I must know about my crew..."   
"Don't worry Henry," said the general, "They will take good care of them. Come on, we have to get you checked out first."   
Gloval seemed to be a little bit dazed and let the paramedic and general lead him to a wheelchair, then they briskly rushed him to the infirmary.   
Sammie saw Roy and headed towards him, still sniffling.   
"Sammie how is everyone?" asked Roy, scared at what he might here her say in return.   
"They're still getting everyone out. I managed to get out first and then we got the direct hit and it jammed up the doorway for quite some time. They just got it open now. Oh Roy, I'm so scared!" Roy held onto Sammie and tried to comfort her. Rick strained to see beyond the smoke-filled doorway but could not see anything.   
After two more minutes they saw Kim being carried out, apparently having suffered leg injuries. Her skirt was torn and there was blood all over her legs. Sammie ran up to her and gave her a quick hug then watched as Vanessa was brought out on a stretcher. her left side bloodied but she was conscious and Sammie ran up to her side and held her hand as the paramedics paused to let Sammie talk to her.   
Sammie looked back at Roy, who said, "You go ahead, go with them."   
Sammie nodded her head and held Vanessa's hand as the paramedics carried her down the corridor, towards the waiting elevator.   
"Let me in there, I need to find Claudia," said Roy angrily.   
"Please Commander, please wait out here. Our teams are highly trained, they know what they're doing, they'll have her out soon, just give them some time," pleaded one of the damage control officers.   
Roy let out a frustrated growl and started pacing around the small space of the hallway. The onlookers had dissipaited but there were still plenty left, waiting to see the rescue of the final two bridge officers.   
After another few minutes, although it seemed like an agonizing eternity to Roy, Claudia was brought out on a stretcher. Her uniform was torn and scorched in various places and she had a gash on her head, but she was trying to talk, which was a good sign. Roy rushed to her side and said, "I'm here baby, don't worry about a thing, I'm here."   
Claudia grasped his hand and instantly felt comforted. She was confused as to what had happened and she felt pain all over her body. She looked at Roy and weakly asked, "How is everyone?"   
Roy put on a fake smile and said, "They're fine, Sammie, Gloval, Kim, Vanessa, they're all being taken care of and you will too and you'll all be fine."   
Claudia looked at Roy for a moment, thinking hard, and then the incident started coming back to her, "Lisa...where's Lisa?" Claudia asked with grave concern.   
Roy pointed over his shoulder and said, "They're bringing her out right now. Don't worry, Rick is going to stay with her. Alright, the medics are ready, we're going to take you to the infirmary now."   
Roy looked at Rick and said, "You stay here and wait for Lisa. Don't leave her side," said Roy, casting a nervous glance at the doorway.   
Rick watched Roy and Claudia go down the hall and into the elevator, he also looked at the line of people who were still looking on. He saw Max and Miriya make their way through the crowd.   
"Hey Rick, I just saw Roy leave with Claudia, is everyone ok?" asked Max.   
Rick took a deep breath then exhaled loudly, "I think everyone should be alright.."   
"Well, then that's good news isn't it? So why is everyone still standing around?" wondered Max.   
"There's still one more person they're trying to get out of there," murmured Rick.   
Max studied Rick's face and could guess who it was but asked anyways, "Who?"   
'_No, wrong again. Are you sure you know what you're doing?' .....'I...uhh...I better get back to the bridge, good afternoon gentlemen.'_ Snippets of the conversations Rick had had with Lisa replayed in his mind. He couldn't get her voice out of his head and couldn't forget the angry look on her face as she stomped to the front of the bridge because he had issued her a challenge. What if his arrogance and need to prove himself right had gotten her killed? He remembered the look in her eyes when they bumped into each other near the elevator.   
"Rick?" said Miriya, interrupting his revisted memories. "Who is it?"   
"It's Li-," Rick felt the knot form in his stomach and in his throat and as he watched more paramedics rush into the bridge, he felt a cold chill run through him. "Lisa," he managed to say, his voice cracking on the last syllable. "If it weren't for me and my big mouth, she'd have walked out of there by now..." 

"What a mess...have surgery standing by, and make sure the blood bank is ready. Quick, gimme a sheet, we're going to cover her up. I don't want those gawkers out there having a show. I even saw some idiot out there with a camera. Quickly, cover her up, head to toe. Be careful now, lift carefully, she's got something internally bleeding somewhere that's spouting something terrible. Make sure we have the _best_ surgeon's ready for her. And, someone, be on standy to ask Gloval to wire down to her father... just in case..." the head physician gave his orders and the team carefully lifted up Lisa's gurney. 

Rick saw commotion near the door and walked quickly towards it but was pushed back by paramedics.   
"Stand back everyone! Stand back!" shouted the damage control officer.   
When Lisa's gurney was brought out everyone gasped, including Miriya. "Is she...deceased?" asked Miriya.   
"I don't know..." said Max, in shock at the sight of seeing whom he assumed was Lisa, covered from head to toe by a very bloodied sheet. He could see blood dripping off the gurney and leaving a trail onto the floor as they wheeled her closer to where Max, Miriya, and Rick were standing.   
"Lisa..." whispered Rick, as he mechanically walked towards Lisa.   
"Stay back sir," said a paramedic.   
"Please, I'm suppose to stay with her," said Rick, still in shock.   
"Are you a relative? A boyfriend?" asked the paramedic.   
"No," replied Rick as he walked alongside the gurney, staring down at the bloodied sheet.   
"Then I'm sorry, you can't come," replied the paramedic.   
In an instant Rick saw flashes of every possible emotion he had ever seen on Lisa's face, his challenge echoing in his head...   
"I _have_ to go with her, she's...she's my friend," said Rick, tears starting to form in his eyes.   
A paramedic came up from the rear and said, "Let him stay with her, I heard Fokker tell him to, and I'm sure Captain Gloval would be mad if she were left alone." 

The physician cursed at the slowness of the elevator, then a paramedic said in a semi-panicked voice, "Doctor, blood pressure's is dropping!"   
"Hang on Lisa, we're almost there," said the doctor in a pleading voice. He looked over at Rick, who had a hollow look on his face. He had overheard some gossip one time from some nurses that Lisa had a crush on Rick, but that Rick was somewhat involved with Minmei. Crushes and whatnot aside, whether they be pure gossip, or had some truth for them, didn't matter now. What mattered was that his patient, his friend, needed someone right now, and perhaps the best someone that was needed right now was Rick, so the doctor looked at Rick, then at the blood pressure monitor, and said, "Hold her hand Lieutenant."   
Rick looked at the doctor, not comprehending what he just told him.   
"Hold her hand Lieutenant...it doesn't look good...she shouldn't be alone at a time like this..." said the doctor, looking Rick in the eyes, to make sure he understood.   
The doctor pulled back the part of the sheet covering Lisa's left arm and Rick slowly took a hold of Lisa's hand. It was bloodied and eerily cold. "Why is she so cold?" asked Rick. The doctor looked at Rick but didn't reply. 

Lisa felt strange, she didn't know what was going on, but she was aware that someone was holding her hand. The hand was strong, but the grip was gentle and warm and she felt greatly comforted. 

"Heartrate has stabalized a bit!" reported an associate physician.   
The lead physician shot a surprised look at Rick, then said with an eager nod of his head, "Don't let go of her hand Rick. Talk to her, keep her with us." 

"Lisa...Lisa...you're going to be ok..." said the voice. Lisa didn't know who was speaking to her, she thought she had heard that voice before but couldn't identify it. It was a gentle voice and she instantly liked it. The male voice told her she was going to be ok, and she believed him. Did this voice also belong to the person who was holding her hand? She wished she knew what was going on, but the one thing she did know was that she was glad to have that voice talking to her and someone holding her hand, it made her feel safe and she believed him when he said she was going to be ok. 

The elevator opened up and the team rushed Lisa's gurney to the operating room. They threw off the sheet and Rick's gasp was audible. Lisa's was bloodied from head to toe practically.   
"Alright, sorry sir but you're going to have to lead now," said a nurse.   
"No, I have to stay with her," protested Rick, still staring at Lisa.   
"Sir, we need to perform surgery, you have to leave," insisted the nurse.   
The lead physician looked at Lisa, then at Rick, and said with some hesitation, "We will take it from here Lieutenant, thank you."   
"No! I need to stay with her!" demanded Rick.   
"Please Rick, we need to do surgery right away. As soon as we can, we'll let you come and visit her," replied the doctor.   
Reluctantly, Rick pulled away from Lisa, and walked out the door. 

_Wait, he's gone? Where did he go? Why did the voice leave? He's not holding my hand anymore. Come back, stay with me, I'm scared. _Lisa felt a cold chill seize her entire body. She didn't know where she was and she couldn't see anything and she still felt confused and now the voice had left and she felt so terribly alone and afraid. 

"Doctor! Heart rate is climbing," reported a nurse.   
"Have the crash cart ready," ordered another physician.   
The lead physican, who's name was Doctor Wells, looked at the door Rick had just departed through. He wanted to call Rick back and let him stay with Lisa, but it was out of his hands. He was subordinate to the surgeons. Doctor Wells had seen it happen many times, too many to count. He'd seen patients seemingly on their way out, when a relative or loved one would arrive and stay with the patient. The love of a relative or a loved one would spark a fighting spirit in the patient, if they had some type of conscious activity, and they would fight back from the brink of death. Doctor Wells had case study after case study in his files and knew that what he observed was no fluke, that is why, one of the first things he did when he treated a badly injured patient was to call for a family member or friend to come and stay with them. 

"How is she?" asked Roy, startling Rick as he stared at the operating room door.   
Rick turned around slowly and Roy saw the most distressed look he had ever seen from Rick. Rick didn't answer Roy and walked towards the waiting room and sat down on a chair facing the operating wing's entrance. "How's Claudia? And the others?" Rick asked mechanically.   
Roy exhaled loudly and sat down on the chair next to Rick, "Claudia has a ruptured spleen and a couple of cracked ribs, she's in surgery now. But the doctors say she'll recover fine. Vanessa has a broken arm, twisted ankle, and a few burns. Kim had both kneecaps broken. Gloval has a concussion and Sammie got lucky and only has a few cuts and bruises."   
Roy looked at Rick again, and it was clear that Rick was badly shaken up. He looked down and saw that Rick's hands were bloodied.   
"I managed to steal a look as you guys brought her in, not to mention seeing the bloody trail following behind ...it isn't good news is it?" asked Roy somberly.   
Rick remained immobile. Roy was a bit surprised Rick was so upset and though he always knew Rick was a very caring person, he had never seen Rick this upset about anyone before.   
"I'm...proud of you for staying with her. Thank you. I thank you for Claudia too. You know that Lisa's like a sister to me and Claudia..." said Roy quietly.   
Rick slowly turned his head sideways to look at Roy. "_Proud_ of me? You're _proud_ of me? For goodness sakes Roy, look!" said Rick wildly as he held up his bloodied hands. "_Look_! I've got Lisa's blood on my hands. She's in there now because of _me_! If I hadn't been such an a---hole to her and distracted her and made her go get that damned manual, she wouldn't _be_ in that operating room right now, fighting for her life. How can you say you're _proud_ of me?!"   
Roy stared at Rick, and knew that he was right. Roy shrugged and said, "I...I don't know what to say."   
Rick's cellphone rang and he answered it without checking the caller ID.   
"Rick, hi! I just wanted to call and say thank you for keeping me company yesterday. Anyways, I wanted to call because I need you to help me with this trivia game that Kyle and a couple of my friends are playing. Oh please say you'll help me Rick. You always help me, you're so sweet," said Minmei happily.   
"No Minmei. I'm sorry, I have something very important to take care of right now. My friend has been badly injured and I'm here at the hospital," answered Rick neutrally.   
"Oh really?? Oh...that's too bad, I hope he gets better soon," replied Minmei in the same tone in which she first spoke to Rick.   
"Goodbye Minmei," said Rick, and then he switched off his phone.   
Roy looked at Rick and waited to see what he would say.   
"She just doesn't understand. She doesn't get it that peoples lives are on the line here. To her everything is just hunky-dory, and if it isn't well, let's just laugh it away, let's just ignore it. She thinks that all that we do is just some game of cops and robbers. She doesn't understand...I don't think she _ever_ will..." said Rick as he angrily shook his head.   
"You see, that's the difference between her and Lisa," continued Rick. "Lisa understands what we go through. But to Minmei, everything is just a game. Things aren't able to hold her attention unless they are things that have specifically to do with _her_. You should've heard her last night, all she talked about was herself and her career and her fans." Rick was starting to fume and he nearly spat his words. Roy sat back and decided to remain quiet and let Rick talk through his feelings.   
"See, but when I talk to Lisa, she listens to me. She ask me questions about what I've said, she doesn't jump in with 'Oh I did this' or 'I that' or 'Me this' or 'me that'," said Rick shaking his head.   
Roy sat back in his seat and asked, "So, when you and Lisa talk, do you do all the talking, just like when you and Minmei talk Minmei does all the talking? Or do you take the time to let Lisa talk and ask her how she's doing?"   
Rick was taken offguard and stammered, "I..I..."   
Roy shook his head, "You know, it would be a little bit hypocritical of you to criticize Minmei when you turn around and do the same thing to Lisa. Do you ever ask Lisa about herself or how she's feeling? Or do you just ramble on and on and whine about Minmei to her?"   
"Roy..." said Rick. 

"We're losing her!" shouted the doctor.   
"We've got to get her heart rate stablized before we can proceed," said another doctor.   
"We've tried, nothing's working," said the head nurse.   
"Let me try something, we've got nothing to lose," said Wells as he headed through the doors. 

"Hunter! We need you in here, she's slipping away from us, you've gotta help her fight," said Wells with determination in his eyes.   
Rick sprang out of his seat the instant the doctor spoke his name. He followed the doctor through the doors and quickly put on the surgical gown, cap, mask, and shoe coverings, washed his hands, then followed Doctor Wells to the operating room.   
"Wells! Are you up to your nonsense again, only medical personnel allowed!" barked one of the doctors.   
Wells walked up to the doctor and said sternly, "I suppose _you_ want to be the one to tell Admiral Hayes that we couldn't save his daughter? Because I sure as hell don't and I sure as hell am going to fight tooth and nail to keep her alive, which includes trying everything and anything."   
Wells brought Rick over to Lisa's side and told him to hold her hand and talk to her while the doctors worked on her. 

Lisa felt something warm grasp her left hand, then she heard a voice again, "Lisa, come on, you have to fight, come on."   
_It's him, he's come back!_   
"Lisa, I'm right here. Come on, you can fight, you can do it," said Rick as he grasped her hand.   
_Who is he? I know that I know that voice..._   
After a few more minutes Lisa's heartrate stablized and the doctors proceeded with the operation. Rick kept his eyes focused on Lisa's face and kept urging her to fight. He was standing behind two surgeons, his arm stuck through a small gap between the men so that he could hold Lisa's hand. After another half hour his arm was growing tired but he dare not loosen his grip.   
More minutes passed and surgery was going well, Rick was given a stool to sit on and he realized that Lisa's hand was not as cold as it was when he first held it in the elevator. He smiled to himself at this positive sign.   
"Lisa, you're doing good. I'm so proud of you, you've always been a fighter. Lisa, it's me Rick, I'm going to stay right here with you, there's nothing to worry about," said Rick as he held Lisa's hand in both of his.   
_Rick? Where have I heard that name before...Rick... Rick! No, what is he doing here?? He's going to stay with me? What about Minmei?? Wait, this must be some kind of joke...he wouldn't stay with me, not when he has Minmei. What's going on here... this is all a joke, at my expense huh? Oh look at poor Lisa...all alone, always alone. Stop teasing me, I don't need your pity!_   
"Doctor! Heartrate rising again!"   
_How can you be so kind and so cruel at the same time? Sure, you'll stay with me now, but as soon as you get the chance you'll go back to Minmei, and I'll be all alone again. Not this time, I can't take it anymore..._   
"Doctor! She's going into cardiac arrest!"   
The doctors and nurses pushed Rick out of the way and time stood still when he lost his grasp on Lisa's hand. Everything whirled and blurred around him as he heard the distant beeping of the monitors and the rushed voices of the doctors and nurses. He remembered the first time he saw her, the first time they had a civil conversation, the time they spent on Dolza's ship, the time they kissed. They had gone through a lot together and they had their share of good times and bad, mostly bad, recently. And Rick was just about to apologize to her last night, but then came Minmei. Shallow, immature, blind-to-the-world Minmei, who never listened to him or cared about what was happening in his life, who said that he was just a good friend to her, a brother to her. Lisa understood him, she always listened to him, and there was that one time when they were trapped during a modular transformation that they almost kissed each other, without being ordered to...why? Rick heard the sound of the flatline tone from the cardiac monitor. What if he lost Lisa now? He'd be losing one of his best friends, a friend who knew everything about him, but he had never taken the time to find out anything about her, a friend whom he couldn't deny he had an attraction for, made evident by the many times when he would steal a glance at her delicate profile or watch her as she walked away. What would happen if she were out of his life, forever?...   
Rick pushed his way past the doctors and got up close to Lisa's face and yelled her, "Lisa!! Dammit you can't leave me, I _need_ you in my life!" Rick wondered what exactly that meant, what did he mean by needing Lisa in his life?...   


  


_Baby_   
_I get so scared inside, and I don't really understand_   
_Is it love that's on my mind, or is it fantasy_   
_(2)_

_What does he mean by needing me in his life? Isn't Minmei enough for him?_ wondered Lisa. _Will he give me the chance to show him what I feel?_

_Heaven_   
_Is in the palm of my hand, and it's waiting here for you_   
_What am I supposed to do with a childhood tragedy_   
_(2)_

  
  


Rick looked at the monitor and it was still flatlining, he clutched Lisa's hand again and said, "Lisa, come on! Don't give up, come on. I meant what I said, I _need_ you in my life! So many people need you too Lisa, _don't_ give up, _come on_!" Rick knew that he needed her in his life and he knew that he would have to make sure to show Lisa that things were going to change, because if they didn't, if they kept on fighting with each other the way that had been for so long, he would have to admit that he lied to her.   
Lisa was still trying to figure out if Rick was telling her the truth, or just trying to say anything that might keep her alive. Lisa felt cold, everything was dark, and even though she could feel Rick's hand, she didn't feel the warmth that she did earlier. She didn't know if she believed Rick. Of in the distance, she heard a voice...it was a man's voice, not Rick's. Who was this new voice? 

_(Chorus)_   
_If I close my eyes forever_   
_Will it all remain unchanged_   
_If I close my eyes forever_   
_Will it all remain the same..._   
_(2)_

  


"Lisa...come with me...you're tired I know...come with me..." the voice said. The voice was gentle, much more gentler than Rick's. "Commander Hayes, I've come to get you out of here!" The voice was Rick's, the day he saved her from Mars Base. Then simultaneously, both voices said, "Come with me!" 

"Doctor! Look!" the nurse pointed to the monitor that showed a quick blip.   
Lisa was confused, she didn't know what was going on, she didn't know where she was, she didn't know what to do, hang on and hope things would get better? Or let go and give up?   
"Come with me Lisa, there is nothing for you here..." said the voice again.   


  


_Sometimes_   
_It's hard to hold on_   
_So hard to hold on to my dreams_   
_It isn't always what is seems_   
_When you're face to face with me_   
_Will you ever take me_   
_No, I just can't take the pain_   
_But would you ever trust me_   
_(2)_

  


Rick watched the monitor with hope and he grasped Lisa's hand again, urging her to fight. The doctors continued their work, trying to stop the internal bleeding.   
Rick moved his hand to brush back the stray strand of hair that had fallen over Lisa's cheek. He let his hand linger on her cheek and marvelled at how soft her skin was, softer than Minmei's. He let his hand trace the lines of Lisa's face and, despite the bruises and cuts, in that moment he thought Lisa was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.   
He moved down close to her ear and pleaded with her again, "Come on Lisa, don't give up! _Please_! I _need_ you in my life!" Rick looked at Lisa again, and hoped that she could hear him, and hoped that she believed him. He had treated her badly so many times, and he regretted everything. If she did pull through, he was going to have to make some big changes and sit down and really do some soul-searching in regards to how to make things up to her. 

_I know I've been so hard to you_   
_I know I've told you lies_   
_If I could have just one more wish_   
_I'd wipe the cobwebs from my eyes_   
_(2)_

  


"Lisa come with me. You don't belong here, nobody loves you like I do. Come with me, and we can be together again..."   
_Who is that? I know that voice... where does he want me to go?_   
The latest fight she had had with Rick started playing in Lisa's mind. She had been challenged by Rick, she had gone to the front of the bridge and looked to see a Zentraedi volley heading straight for the bridge, and then she was here, wherever here was. What was she going to do, go with the voice or stay here? The voice was so comforting and familiar and she didn't really want to stay how she was on the SDF-1, alone, miserable. She decided that when she heard the voice the next time, she would follow him and go with him. She felt light-headed, sleepy...   


  


_Close your eyes_   
_Close your eyes_   
_You gotta close you eyes for me..._   
_(2)_

  


"Nurse! Call up to blood bank again, we need more blood!" ordered the lead surgeon.   
"Dammit, we can't stop the bleeding!" said the assistant surgeon as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.   
Dr. Wells watched on with increasing realization that he just might have to be the one to tell Admiral Hayes, his good friend for over twenty years, that they could not save Lisa. He remembered the dinner parties he used to share with the Hayes family, and how close his own daughter and Lisa used to be. He had gotten assigned to Macross Island around the same time as Lisa and promised the Admiral that he'd keep his eye on Lisa for him. Then the Zentraedi attacked Macross Island for the first time, and Doctor Wells' wife and daughter had been caught in the firefight downtown and had both died. Wells was still trying to get through his grief. After the death of his wife and daughter he stayed away from Lisa because she reminded him of the daughter he had lost. And though both could have helped each other through their mourning, they avoided each other and suffered alone.   
A nurse practically shoved Rick out of the way, causing him to bump into some of the monitors, and as soon as Rick let go of Lisa's hand, the monitor sounded the flatline tone.   
The doctors charged up the machine to try and revive her again and tried several times but got no response. The lead surgeon then tried to do it manually, and tried several more times and finally gave up.   
_When is that voice coming? I want to go with him. I don't want to stay here, it's cold, and I'm scared..._   
"Don't give up dammit! Look at the monitor, there's still brain activity!" shouted Wells.   
Rick stared at the flatline. The sound of the flatline tone was the only thing that could be heard in the room and it was a deafening sound.   
The lead surgeon checked for Lisa's pulse on her right wrist...   
"I'm sorry Wells, I know she was a friend of your daughter's. Would you like for me to tell Admiral Hayes?" said the assistant surgeon quietly.   
"NO!!" shouted Rick. He glared at the group of doctors and nurses, "Keep trying damn it! Keep trying!!!"   
"I'm sorry sir, there's nothing more we can do," said a nurse somberly.   
Rick scrambled to Lisa's side and stared at her momentarily then started shaking her by the shoulders, yelling in anguish, "NO! Dammit Lisa you can't do this to me!! Don't leave me!! You can't leave me!!"   
'Don't leave me! You can't leave me!'.... _Who is that? Rick?_ 'Lisa don't listen to him, you don't belong there, you belong with me...' _What? I don't understand, I'm so confused._   
Doctor Wells stared at the various monitors, the neuro monitor still showed brain activity, the respiratory monitor...still showed weak, but minute activity. Did Wells hope a miracle would happen? He knew that the brain and respiratory functions continued for a very brief time after the heart had stopped, but this seemed to have been already past that period of time, and she was still breathing, barely...Wells heart began to pound, he now recalled Rick having bumped into some instruments when he was moved out of the way, was there a chance....   
"Get a new cardiac monitor in here, now!" ordered Wells.   
"Wells, what is going on?" asked the lead surgeon.   
"Rick, feel her heart! Is there a heartbeat?" said Wells with hope.   
Rick stared at the doctors for a moment, then pulled himself up and placed a shakey hand over Lisa's heart.   
_Who is that touching me? It's so warm and gentle, so comforting..._   
"There's a heartbeat! There's a heartbeat!!" exclaimed Rick.   
The doctors stared at each other in disbelief then looked at the monitor, which was still registering a flatline. A surgery techician rushed in with a new cardiac monitor and they quickly hooked Lisa up to the new one and it instantly showed a stable heartbeat. The lead surgeon wasted no time gawking and ordered, "Hurry up! We've still got alot of work to do, we need to keep this bleeding under control!"   


  


* * * * * * * 

"Roy?" said Claudia weakly.   
"I'm here baby, don't worry, I'm right here," said Roy gently.   
"Where am I? What happened?" asked Claudia.   
"You just got out of surgery awhile ago. The bridge took a direct hit. You'll be out of action for a little while but the doctor says you'll do just fine," replied Roy with a smile.   
"The bridge..." mumbled Claudia, still confused. She closed her eyes and tried to remember, then it slowly came back to her. "Everyone? Is everyone alright?"   
Roy pushed the blond hair out of his eyes and smiled, "Yeah everyone should be just fine. Lisa's still in surgery but Rick is in there with her. She'll be just fine," Roy lied.   
"Can I see her?" asked Claudia.   
Roy put a comforting hand on Claudia's forehead, "Not yet beautiful. You need to get plenty of rest right now, and so does Lisa. When the both of you are feeling up to it, I promise, the first thing I'll do is take you to see her."   
Claudia nodded then smiled at Roy and closed her eyes to take a nap, she was feeling very groggy still. 

Roy waited until he was sure Claudia was asleep then he walked back out to the waiting room where he found the Sterlings, Sammie, and Captain Gloval sitting down, staring at the surgery door.   
"Any news yet?" asked Roy as he took a seat near Sammie and gave her a quick hug.   
"Nothing yet," said Sammie with a sniffle. "Roy, they've been in there a long time, I'm so worried."   
Roy put his arm around Sammie's shoulders, "Don't worry kid. You know how much of a scrapper Lisa is. She'll pull through."   
"I'm surprised that Rick has been in there the whole time," said Sammie quietly. "I didn't think he cared."   
Roy was slightly offended by the comment. He knew Rick all his life and Rick had always been a sensitive and caring person, well, except when it came to Lisa. Roy decided not to say anything and just gave Sammie another pat on the shoulder.   
Finally, after another long hour, the surgery door opened and Rick walked slowly towards his friends. Everyone gasped, his hospital gown was covered in blood, he had blood on his hands and even some on his face. They held their breath as he walked toward them with an unreadable look. He stopped in front of them, looked at them all and said quietly, "She made it through surgery...but she's barely hanging on, the doctors said to not get our hopes up, but if you ask me...I think she'll prove them wrong, and she'll make it...she just has to...she just has to..." Rick collapsed to his knees in exhaustion. He was physically, mentally, and emotionally drained.   
Roy and Sammie went to go over and comfort Rick as Captain Gloval met Doctor Wells.   
"Captain, Lisa's one hell of a fighter. She made it through the surgery, but she's not out of the woods yet, she's still comatose. I'm an optimistic man Captain, and I've known Lisa since she was a toddler, and I sure as hell am not going to listen to all the negative talk from the surgeons. I think she's got a good chance at a full recovery, if she has the will to do it. I know that she and her father don't get along, but I think it's important that he come and see her if possible. She can't be moved, so he's going to have to come up here. I can call him if you wish, I probably think it's better if I do," explained Wells.   
Gloval nodded and asked, "When can we see her?"   
"Maybe...tommorrow evening, but definitely not before. I'll let you know as soon as I find out," replied Wells.   
"Thank you doctor, I'm glad you're an optimist like I am," said Gloval quietly.   
"Well Henry, it's so easy to just throw in the towel and succumb, especially after what we've been through since we launched, but everytime I go to the cemetary to visit my daughter and wife, I make a promise to them that I won't let things get me down, and that's what keeps me going. I couldn't save my daughter and wife, but I sure as hell won't let that make me bitter and stop fighting for every single one of my patients, especially Lisa." Wells looked over at Rick and added in a whisper, "Better keep an eye on that one, maybe give him some time off, it was very intense in there for him. He'll need some time to recover."   
Gloval shook Wells' hand and then the doctor headed back through the door. Gloval came over to check on Rick, who was sitting in a chair with his face in his hands. Gloval bent down and said, "Rick, thank you for staying with Lisa. I'm sure it wasn't easy in there. Why don't you take the rest of the week off."   
Rick, his face still in his hands, nodded his head. Roy announced, "I'll take him home Captain, and try and get him to sleep, then I'll come back and check on my Claudia one more time. Will you stay with her until I get back?"   
"Of course Roy, you go ahead," said Gloval.   
Roy and Max pulled Rick up to his feet as Roy said, "Come on Rick, let's get you into some fresh clothes and get you something to eat."   


-------------- 

to be continued..... 

OOOOOOOOOWEEEEEEEEEE!! Is that Angst with a capital A or what?! And it's strange, I'm not in an angsty mood or anything, so I really don't know where all the angst in this story came from! LOL! 

Ummm.....ok, sorry if the surgery scenes are a bit corny, I don't know anything about near-death experiences because I don't watch shows or movies that have that as a topic, so I don't know how accurate Lisa's internal conversations are. *sweat* :)   
But I bet at least Judith and Carla will be happy to see Rick go through the ringer a bit during those surgery scenes! :) 

This was actually very very very difficult to write. I didn't know if I captured the gravity and intensity of the surgery scenes correctly or not. Hopefully it did at least have some of the effect that I wanted. 

Songs:   
(1) Tammy Wynette - "Another Lonely Song"   
(2) Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford - "Close My Eyes Forever" 


	4. Part 3

Robotech Macross: "What If...?"   
Story 1 part 3a

  
  


"Damn! Do you know how long this will keep me off the dancefloor?!" growled Kim as she looked at the casts on her legs.   
Sammie wrung her hands and looked over at Vanessa on the other side of the room who was shifting uncomfortably. Sammie got up and went to Vanessa's bedside and asked what was wrong.   
"This fricken call button is stabbing me in the back," said Vanessa in annoyance.   
Sammie rolled Vanessa over a little bit and found that somehow she was lying on the call button box, so Sammie pulled it out from under Vanessa and asked, "There Miss Cranky, is that better?"   
Vanessa rolled her eyes, saying, "Yes Florence Nightengale, you've got such a great bedside manner."   
Sammie put her hands on her hips and said, "Well, fine, if you two wicked stepsisters are going to be grumpy the whole time, then I'm just not going to come and visit you!"   
"Oh come on Sammie," said Kim, "Vanessa is just pissed that's all, she was suppose to go on that big date next week, remember?"   
"Ohh...that's right..." said Sammie quietly.   
Vanessa waved her hand, "Nevermind. Considering what happened, I think we should be glad we're alive. I'm sorry I snapped at you Sam. I'm just really irritable, because I feel like crap."   
"It's alright, I'm sorry I said I wouldn't come see you guys and that I called you Miss Cranky. I'm just so exhausted and my nerves are so frazzled. Today has really been a nightmare," returned Sammie.   
"It all happened so fast, do any of you guys remember what happened?" asked Kim.   
Sammie thought for a moment then replied, "What I remember was seeing Vanessa's screen and realized that we would be hit so I ran towards the door because the Pinpoint Barrier guy told us to get out. Then I heard the explosion and found myself out in the hallway and I looked back and saw the door was damaged and I tried to get it open but it wouldn't budge and I could hear Captain Gloval on the other side telling me to get the door open. Then the damage control teams came and that's when they got you all out. How about you?"   
Kim also took a few moments to think then said, "I remember hearing them tell us to get out and I saw Sammie running towards the door, so I followed her and Captain Gloval was behind me but I thought, he's the captain, he needs to be safe first, so I twisted around and tried to push him through the door, then I heard the explosion and was thrown into Sammie's station and that's all I remember."   
Kim and Sammie looked at Vanessa and waited for her to start her narrative. She closed her eyes and tried to remember what happened. After what seemed like a long time, she opened her eyes and spoke slowly, trying to remember as she spoke, "I remember Captain Gloval grab my arm and pull me towards the door, I saw Sammie get out and then saw Kim and the Captain in front of me. I heard Claudia right behind me telling me to get out, then there was the explosion and I don't remember anything after that." Vanessa pondered for a moment then began counting, "Sammie, me, Kim, the Captain, and Claudia...wait! Lisa! Where was Lisa?" Vanessa looked at Kim with a look of realization and then both women looked at Sammie.   
Sammie wrung her hands and started sniffling, remembering the sight of Rick coming out of the operating room.   
"Sammie..." said Vanessa quietly as she gave Kim a worried look.   
"Sammie...tell us..." urged Kim.   
"It...doesn't look good...one of the doctors is a friend of her father's and he thinks she can pull through, but the surgeons don't think she can..." said Sammie in a rush before she started crying.   
Kim held out her arms and Sammie went to her as if Kim were her mother and hugged her. Vanessa looked over at them and let out a loud sigh and said, "Someone please tell me this is one big nightmare and that when I wake up everything will be back to normal..."   
Kim handed Sammie a tissue and then Vanessa suddenly remembered something.   
"Sammie, is Roy still with Claudia right now?" asked Vanessa.   
"No, Captain Gloval is with her. Roy and Max took Rick home because he was so upset, then Roy said he was coming back after they got Rick settled," replied Sammie.   
"Rick? Upset?? About what? What is he doing here?" asked Kim with bewilderment.   
Sammie looked at Kim, then Vanessa, and said, "He was with Lisa when they pulled her off the bridge and all during the surgery."   
Kim and Vanessa looked at each other and then looked at Sammie as if she were crazy.   
Kim held up her hands and said, "Whoa whoa, hold up here. Did you say Rick? As in _thee_ Rick Hunter? The one who always fights with Lisa, the one who's always such a jerk? Surely you can't be talking about the same Rick Hunter?"   
Sammie shook her head, "I know it seems hard to believe, but it _was_ him. He stayed with her the whole time."   
Vanessa was still completly dumbfounded and retorted a bit sarcastically, "_Why_?"   
Kim folded her arms and replied, "Yeah, I want to know too, _why_?"   
Sammie stood up and put her hands on her hips again, "You girls are too much. I mean, come _on_, they are friends...at least, sometimes they are. And you should've seen him, he was really really upset. It's not like he's a heartless monster."   
Vanessa and Kim looked at each other with skepticism then Vanessa replied, "He's probably just got a very guilty conscious that's all. You'll see the minute Lisa's out of the woods, Rick will be back to his old self again, backtalking, giving her grief all the time, giving us a headache with his arrogance, he won't change."   
Sammie shook her head, "You didn't see him, you didn't see the look on his face."   
Vanessa shrugged her good shoulder dismissively and said, "Well, anyways, before I forget, and I nearly did because we got sidetracked on the Rick issue, listen, Sammie. Lisa told Claudia that if she were ever injured, to not call for her father, Admiral Hayes. And Claudia told me that if both she and Lisa were injured then I was to carry out the orders, which is to make sure Admiral Hayes doesn't get called. This was Lisa's specific wish. So since I'm stuck here for who knows how long, and so is Kim, then it's now up to you, ok?"   
"What?" exclaimed Sammie. "Not call her father? For goodness sakes, Lisa might _die_, her father _needs_ to be here!"   
Kim looked over at Vanessa and said, "Come on V, surely Lisa probably only meant if she were slightly injured. But it's very serious here, as her father, he has every right to be told about what happens to his daughter."   
Vanessa sighed again and said, "I don't know, but that's what Claudia said. I'm sure that Lisa didn't think a worst case scenario would happen. If it were up to me I'd call for him right away too."   
"Well then what are we waiting for?" asked Sammie.   
"I don't want Lisa to get mad at me. Look, ok, why don't we just wait and talk to Claudia first. That's why I asked for Roy, maybe he can ask Claudia what she thinks we should do," said Vanessa.   
"What we should do is call her father, _right now_," said Sammie adamantly.   
"Waita minute," interrupted Kim, "I don't even think this is our decision to make. Shouldn't Captain Gloval be the one to decide? And don't you think the doctors are already making the call?"   
Vanessa shrugged again, "I don't know but all I was told...wait, now I remember, and Lisa had told me herself, she said under _no_ circumstances was her father supposed to be called."   
"Vanessa Leeds, stop being so damned stubbornly loyal," said Sammie with a rare flash of true anger. "Lisa's father is going to be called whether she likes it or not. She may not want to see him, but he sure would want to see her and I don't think he should be stopped from seeing her just because Lisa is mad at him for whatever reason. Don't you understand? She might die! And I don't want to be the one who kept Admiral Hayes from seeing his daughter one last time..." Sammie broke down into tears and went back to her chair and slumped down in it.   
"It's not our decision to make Vanessa, let's leave it up to the Captain..." said Kim quietly as she wiped her eyes.   
Vanessa turned her head and stared out the window, wishing she could wake up from this nightmare. 

* * * * * * * 

"Rick, here's your stuff, now go and take a shower, you'll feel better afterwards," said Roy as he handed a bundle to Rick.   
Rick took the bundle and shuffled to the shower area of the locker room. Roy walked back towards the lockers and sat down on the bench where Max was waiting.   
"Do you think he understood what you were telling him?" asked Max.   
Roy cupped his ear and then heard the noise of the shower, "Well, at least it seems he remembered how to turn on the shower. If he doesn't come out after 30 minutes, we'll go check on him."   
Max nodded and said, "I've never seen him so upset about anything before. I haven't known him that long though, does he always get this upset?"   
Roy took out his lighter and lit the cigarrette that was in his hand and said, "No. I've never seen him so upset about anything before, and I've known him since he was born."   
"I guess it must've been very traumatic for him in the operating room," mused Max.   
"I would really liked to know what happened, but I think it's best to just be patient and let him talk about it when he's ready to...and I guess...perhaps now we know just how much Lisa means to Rick..." said Roy, tapping the ashes off his cigarette.   
"What do you mean?" asked Max.   
"Well, think about it...how would you react if it were Miriya in that operating room, how would I react if it were Claudia in that operating room. As a squadron leader you sometimes go into the operating room with your pilots, and as we all know, sometimes our pilots don't make it back. We've lost a lot of people since we launched. We lost Ben, and that was very hard on Rick, but...I stayed with Rick the day Ben died and he was still able to function. He was upset naturally, but he wasn't like he is now... he's reacting as if Lisa were his wife or something...And...if you ask me, if this were Minmei, I still don't think he'd be _this_ upset..."   
Max thought about it for a few moments, trying to imagine if he and Miriya were in the situation Rick had just gone through with Lisa, and he realized Roy's point. Max lowered his voice and looked around first, to make sure no one was in earshot and then said, "He's in love with Lisa isn't he?"   
Roy shook his head slowly, took another puff of his cigarette, then said quietly, "He's never realized it, but maybe after what happened today, he will."   


Rick stood completely still as the water cascaded down on him. _'I suggest you go look it up in the manual, since you don't know.' _Rick remembered those words and they were screaming in his mind incessantly. Rick ran both his hands through his hair and gritted his teeth in anger. People under his command had been injured before, had been killed before, why Lisa having such an effect on him? Because she wasn't injured at the direct hands of the enemy. Rick himself, had placed Lisa into the hands of the enemy by issuing his stupid challenge to her. _Why did she have to take me up on the challenge? Why did I even push the issue in the first place? Why didn't I stop and see her last night? Now I might not ever get the chance to apologize to her...Now I might not ever see her again...and it's all my fault..._

_ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Flashback ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^_

"Hello Lieutenant," said Lisa cheerfully as she stood in front of Rick.   
"Lisa, I mean, Commander, what can I do for you?" stammered Rick, surprised to find Lisa at his door.   
"I was out shopping with the girls last week and I saw this in the store window and I thought it would look good on you," said Lisa shyly as she held out a wrapped box.   
Rick took the box with a great amount of surprise and stared at it.   
"I thought...it would make a nice birthday present," said Lisa with a shrug and a slight smile.   
Rick stared at Lisa, still surprised, and then shook himself out of his stupor and said, "Come on in, I just finished boiling some water, would you care for something to drink?"   
Lisa smiled nervously and followed Rick into his small quarters. Rick fixed two cups of tea then opened up Lisa's present. Lisa was seated on the only chair in the small room.   
Rick's eyes lit up when he opened the box. He held up the sweater and exclaimed, "Hey! I've been eyeing this sweater for the longest time, and it's my favorite color too!"   
Lisa smiled, she could tell from the expression on Rick's face that he truly did appreciate her gift.   
Rick grinned at Lisa and asked, "This is great, thank you! Do you think I can try it on now?"   
Lisa chuckled and gestured with her hand, "Be my guest, it is yours after all. You don't need my permission for anything, we're not on duty right now."   
Rick gave an embarrassed laugh, "Oh yeah, that's right."   
Rick put on the knit pullover sweater and brushed smooth the arms, he turned around in a circle then faced Lisa again and asked, "How does it look?"   
Rick saw a strange, unreadable look in Lisa's eyes for a split second, then she smiled and said, "It looks very good on you. I hope you like it."   
"I love it!" exclaimed Rick. "It's so comfortable too."   
Lisa smiled then sipped her tea. Rick was completely taken by surprise, since he and Lisa had just had another big fight the day before, he thought she would be angry at him for at least a week. He had said something stupid to her yet again and he knew it. Having her here now, he thought he should apologize.   
"Lisa, listen, about what I said yesterday...I'm sorry," said Rick quietly.   
Lisa put down her cup and said, "It's alright. I already forgot about it, but this means I get a freebie swipe at you next time."   
Rick laughed, marvelling at how relaxed and easy-going Lisa was at the moment. He held up his hands and said, "Alright alright."   
Lisa smiled at Rick then looked down quickly. He wondered why she did that, why she was so shy whenever they had a civil and even fun conversation. He wished she didn't look away from him, he liked her smile, he thought she looked so cute when she smiled, and he loved to see the glow from her green eyes.   
Lisa's cellphone sounded and she excused herself then answered it. After hanging up she told Rick, somewhat reluctantly it seemed to him, that she had to attend a meeting that had been moved up. Rick walked her to the door and didn't know how to thank her for the gift. Just say thank you? Give her a hug?   
"Uh...thank you for the sweater Lisa, I love it," mumbled Rick, still figuring out what to do.   
"I'm glad you liked it," she said with another shy smile. Then she came up close to Rick and hesitated for a second, then went up slightly on tiptoes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek and said, "Happy Birthday Rick," then she hurried away.   
Rick stood in his doorway, watching Lisa walking quickly down the hallway, the feel of her kiss still lingering on his cheek. He watched her until she was out of sight then closed his door and sat in a daze for a long while.   
Max and Roy came over awhile later and took him out for his birthday. When he got back home, Rick had hoped to find a birthday message of some type from Minmei, but there was none. She never called that night to wish him happy birthday, nor did she call the next day, nor the next...and for several days after that, Rick could not get Lisa's image out of his mind, the kiss, as simple and harmless as it seemed to be, kept replaying in his mind several times throughout the days... 

_ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ End Flashback ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^_   
  


"Hey Rick, are you all right?" Rick heard Roy holler.   
"I'm fine," said Rick numbly.   
"Ok, if you need us we're out here by the lockers," replied Roy.   


Rick opened his locker and the first thing he saw was that sweater Lisa had given to him. He slowly pulled it off it's hanger and held it up and said more to himself than to Roy and Max, "She gave me this sweater for my birthday. I think I told you guys the story..."   
Roy and Max glanced at each other and Roy uttered something in acknowledgement and continued to wait for Rick to finish getting dressed. After he finished dressing, Rick just sat down on the bench and stared at the lockers.   
Roy clapped his hands together and said, "I think we all need a drink, come on, let's go into town and find a quiet place to get something to drink and eat."   
Max waited and then Rick got up and followed Max and Roy out of the locker room in silence.   
Roy knew of a place that was empty at this time of day and decided to head there, incase Rick caused a scene of some sort he wouldn't embarrass himself in front of a lot of people.   
As they walked down a back road, they heard a car honk, then pull up next to them.   
"Rick! Roy! Max! What a coincedence to see you here! I was just on my way to a photoshoot but I can spare a few moments to say Hi to my friends," said Minmei cheerfully as she stepped out of the car, wearing a tight red dress and high heels.   
Max and Roy greeted Minmei and then she walked over to Rick and clamped her arm around his and said, "Hey there handsome! Rick, look at my dress, isn't it just lovely?? It's so expensive but the boutique let me borrow it, I just love dressing up in these beautiful clothes, it makes me feel like a princess!"   
Rick gave no indication that he was aware of Minmei. Minmei looked at him and stomped her foot slightly, "Hmph! Rick, you silly guy, aren't you paying attention to me?? Look at my dress, isn't it beautiful?"   
Rick still didn't answer and Minmei shook his arm playfully, but Rick wasn't in the mood to be playful or bothered so he jerked his arm away from Minmei, stuck his hands in his pocket, and kept on walking.   
"Riiiick!" whined Minmei before Roy could pull her aside.   
"You gotta forgive him, he's very upset right now Minmei, Lisa is in really bad shape," explained Roy.   
"Lisa? Who's Lisa?" asked Minmei, with total obliviousness.   
"Look, Minmei, it was nice running into you, check back with Rick in a week or so and hopefully he'll be in a better mood," said Roy, annoyed that Minmei didn't remember who Lisa was.   
Minmei shrugged then twirled around for Max and Roy's benefit and asked, "So do _you_ guys like my dress??"   
Max and Roy nodded but didn't comment, amazed at Minmei's self-centeredness.   
"Well, that's good, at least I know _some_ people are paying attention to me," she said in a snipped tone, and then headed back into the car and was on her way.   
Max pushed his glasses up and asked Roy, "What on earth does Rick see in her?"   
Roy tossed his cigarette on the ground and said, "I have no idea Max, I have no idea..."   


to be continued....   
======================== 

next time...   
1) what happens when Rick gets drunk?   
2) Admiral Hayes is made aware of his daughter's condition   
3) Rick is put in charge of bringing Admiral Hayes safely to the SDF-1, what could they possibly talk about?   


I plan to give Admiral Hayes (what is his first name? anyone know?) a good amount of air-time because...I actually do like the guy and feel sorry for him. I always thought that Lisa gave him too much of a hard time and that the strain on their relationship was more of her doing than her father's. So I will hopefully add more to a character who we really don't know too much about but always wanted to know a little bit better. 

This is turning out to be much longer than I expected! I have a very difficult time writing anything 'short' LOL! For some reason the hot weather makes me type faster and I've been able to get on a roll with this story. 

For those wondering about my To The Stars chapter 21, I am going to start on that this weekend. I expect it will be a rather short chapter, since it is a downtime chapter, but then again, look at how long my last downtime chapter turned out to be. YIKES! But I think this chapter 21 will not be too long, because I really want to get the action started, which will start in chapter 22. Stay tuned! 

MORE UPDATES MORE STORIES!! PLEASE PEOPLE WRITE/UPDATE MORE RICK-LISA MACROSS STORIES!! I need something to read!! I don't read my own stuff, only unless I do proofreading or am really really bored, so I need something to read, written by other people. Pretty please? Thanks! :)   
  



	5. Part 4

Robotech: What If...   
Story 1 part 4

  
  


Day 2 continued.... 

Rick didn't bother to open his menu. "I'm not hungry Roy," he said stoically.   
Roy opened up the menu and placed it in front of Rick, "You have to eat something. It's not going to do Lisa or anyone any good if you starve yourself," said Roy with some annoyance.   
Max hid a grin behind his menu and watched as Rick looked over his menu once and then said, "Just give me a hamburger."   
Roy and Max placed their orders and then the three men were asked what they wanted to drink. Both Roy and Max ordered a beer but Rick looked over at the bar, then back at the waiter and said, "Gimme a Scotch." The waiter took the menus and then the bartender brought over the drinks. Roy looked around and was glad that they seemed to be the only patrons in the restaurant, especially if Rick planned on having a few more glasses of Scotch.   
Rick drank half his glass even before Max had had two sips of his beer. Rick cleared his throat, trying to get used to the taste of the Scotch. He had only drunk Scotch once before and remembered that it was strong, but today he didn't care, he needed something strong.   
Max was telling Roy another story about Miriya and normally Rick loved to hear these funny tales, but at the moment he wasn't paying attention. He was thinking back to the time when he, Lisa, Ben, and Max were held prisoner on Dolza's ship. What an adventure that was. It gave him nightmares for awhile, but he was glad he went through the adventure, it taught him alot, not just about the Zentraedi, himself, his friends, but Lisa as well.   
Rick finished his glass then ordered another one.   
"Rick, don't you think you better get some food in your stomach first?" warned Roy.   
Rick ignored the question and thought about the time when he and Lisa were stuck in a corner of a ship during a modular transformation. They fought for awhile, but as time wore on they found consolation in each other's company. They confessed that they 'liked' each other and were actually on the brink of kissing, but then the ship transformed back and they made their way back to their barracks. Rick wished they had kissed.   
Rick's drink came and he downed half of it right away. Max and Roy traded looks and Roy thought he should take the opportunity to see what was on Rick's mind, especially now since he was loosening up.   
Rick finished his drink and Roy asked, "How are you doing Rick? What are you thinking about?"   
Rick ordered another Scotch and said with a hint of a slur, "Thinking about?? I'm thinking about Lisa of course. What else would I be thinking about?"   
Roy shrugged, "I dunno, Minmei maybe, I dunno."   
"Come on Roy, you've got to be out of your mind!" said Rick angrily.   
"Whoa there tiger, no need to get mad, I'm not a mindreader or anything, how would I know you weren't thinking of Minmei, we did meet up with her just now afterall, and considering the way you fawn over her all the time, I just thought-" said Roy.   
"Well for your information, I'm not thinking about Minmei," answered Rick, a little more calmly than before.   
"Ok ok, I'm sorry. So what were you thinking about?" asked Roy, as he watched Rick drink another glass.   
Rick rubbed his eyes and tried to think clearly, but he felt cotton-headed and couldn't concentrate. Max noticed that Rick was now starting to sway a bit and he checked the chair to make sure Rick wouldn't fall off.   
Rick let out a short, drunken laugh and replied, "You know what I'm thinking about?? I'm thinking about the time me and Lisa got trapped together during that Monitor Transportation. We were wandering through the streets after we got out of the movie because Sammie sounded the alarm for the Monitor Transfloration and I was heading out of the theater.. You see, I tripped over someone and ended up grabbing someone's ass as I was falling. And what do you know? It just happens to be Lisa's ass! Ha ha ha! Wooooo. Damn! She's got a fine ass too!"   
Max give Roy raised eyebrows. It was clearly evident that Rick was completely drunk, and they were expecting more candid comments to come out of his cottoned head.   
"I should've kissed her you know, 'cause she is a pretty good kisser actually," slurred Rick.   
"What about Minmei?" asked Roy.   
"Minmei? Minmei? To hell with that selfish b---h! She only thinks about her self! She's such a tease," said Rick as he waved his hands around. "She's got me in knots all the time and she only comes around whenever she's _bored_ or whenever she wants a favor. And she always seems to have a lot of guys around her, talk about not knowing how to commit to one guy. It's like she just craves the attention of guys...sheeeeeeyet," finished Rick as he loooked at his hamburger and was figuring out what he was suppose to do with it.   
Rick had finished another drink and grabbed Max's beer bottle and started laughing, "Have you guys stopped to think about it? We are lucky guys aren't we? To have such wonderful, inspelligent, gorgeous, wonderful, did I say gorgeous? womens. Look at it, Max has the Quadrallono Queen, Roy's got Claudia, and I've got Lisa, I mean how lucky can us flydudes get huh?! Yeah!" Rick finished Max's beer and tried to set the bottle down but missed and dropped it on the floor. He tried to get up out of his chair and pick it up but he ended falling on the floor, face down. He rolled onto his back as Roy stood up and tried to help him but Rick waved his arms wildly again and slurred, "No no no, I'm fine, I can done it me-self."   
Max realized that the scene was becoming less and less funny by the minute and quickly finished his food and then called for the check as Roy helped Rick up and got him settled back into his seat.   
"You knowww, you know why I like Miss Hayes??" asked Rick, as he looked at Roy, then Max.   
The two men shook their head and then Rick patted Max's hand and then Roy's hand and said, "As nice as you gentlemens are and how we are such good buddies and can talk about all sorts of things, it's not the same as talking to Lisa you know? I mean we talk about alot of things when we are working on flight schmedules and resports. She understands what troubles I go through and after Ben died she always called to check on me and see if I were ok and she even baked me a cake. Isn't that sweet?? What the hell did Minmei ever do for me? Nothing I tell you, the damn tease!"   
Rick looked at his hamburger and managed to take one bite and then he looked at it and tossed it over his shoulder saying, "This sucks! It tastes like crap!"   
Max went over and cleaned up the mess Rick made and then told Roy, "Listen, I think we better get him home soon. Also, I promised Miriya I wouldn't be out too long tonight."   
Rick overheard and turned around in his chair, almost tipping over. "Hey Max, so you got the old lady waiting for you at home eh?? Whatcha going to do huh? HAH HAH HAH! I bet I know. Hah hah! Did I ever tell you guys about the time I had a dream about Minmei and Lisa fighting over me?? Hey, well what can I say, I'm just so darn cute, the women love me, me me me."   
Roy and Max looked at each other and, although he thought he might not want to hear it, he askd Rick about his dream.   
"Oh ho ho whoooo that was the _bestest_ dream I ever had!" exclaimed Rick as he leaned back in his chair. "Linlei and Misa were fighting over me you know, and Lisa was mad because I spent all my time with Twinmei and so Lisa came over to my house and she knocked down the door and she and Minmei started this mean old cat fight and Lisa kicked Minmei's ass and kicked her out of the house!"   
"And what happened after that Rick?" asked Max.   
"That's the bestest part!" said the swaying Rick with a wink. "I'm not going to tell you. That's my favorite memories, all mine, private and personal. The best! I'll just say that 9 months later, Lisa had twins! Because we did it twice! And if we had done it three times, she'd have had triplets! Hah haha ha!"   
Roy rolled his eyes, he had had enough and decided it was best to get Rick home ASAP. He and Max started pulling Rick up and Rick blurted out, "Do you know why I like Lisa? Because she's so f----n' purrty! And she's a hottie man! Sorry Max, Roy, but my Lisa is better than your women! And you know what else?? I think she likes me...yeap. Well what can I say, I'm a great guy!"   
Rick's legs would not walk straight no matter how hard he tried and so Roy and Max had to support Rick's weight completely. After a rather quiet taxicab ride back to the barracks, Roy told Max to help him carry Rick into Roy's quarters, since he most likely had to keep an eye on Rick during the night. Roy's quarters were much bigger than Rick's and Roy didn't want a drunken Rick to wander over to Max's and disturb the Sterlings. Especially with Rick's uncontrollable ranting, Roy was afraid Rick might say something to upset Miriya.   
Roy was helping Rick sit down on the couch and Rick started to fall, so Roy grabbed onto Rick's sleeve to try and catch him and ended up ripping it in the process. Rick heard the tear and not only had his sweater ripped, but so did his anger.   
"You f----n' a--hole! This was the sweater Lisa gave me!" shouted Rick.   
Before Roy could react, Rick hauled off and knocked Roy square across the left eye, then Rick lost his balance and fell down. He tried to get up but stumbled and Max reacted quickly and pinned Rick's arms behind his back.   
"Let me go!!" yelled Rick as he tried to squirm free from Max's grasp.   
Max held Rick securly as Roy got up, holding his rapidly bruising eye.   
"Calm down Rick, dammit!" said Roy.   
"Calm down?! Don't you dare tell me to calm down! Lisa's going to die because of me and you want me to f----n' calm down!! You ruined the sweater she gave me for my birthday, damn you!" shouted Rick.   
Rick managed to stand still for a moment and then kicked backwards, hitting Max in the shin and causing him to let go of Rick, who immediately lunged at Roy and started pounding on his Roy's chest.   
"She's gonna die dammit and it's all my fault! It's all my fault! Don't you understand?" said Rick. He shouted at first, but then started to be overcome by the heavy realization and broke down in tears.   
He lay on his back and rolled back and forth from left to right, his hands clamped over his face, "I don't want her to die, I don't want her to die...I need her...Roy? Tell me she won't die...Roy?"   
Roy knelt down near Rick, having never seen him in such a state before, it was very difficult to watch and Roy needed to clear the knot out of his throat before saying quietly, "Don't worry Rick, she'll be just fine. She won't die."   
Rick nodded and removed his hands from his face and then rolled over on his side and stared blankly. Roy gestured to Max and the two men helped Rick over to the couch again.   
"You just lie down for awhile Rick, you'll feel better after you've had some sleep," said Roy, trying to sound cheerful.   
Roy walked Max to the door and Max stuffed his hands in his pocket and said, "I almost feel guilty for being able to go home to Miriya."   
Roy shook his head, "Don't. Listen, thanks for all the help. I've got it taken care of. Go ahead and go home to that beautiful wife of yours."   
Max nodded and asked, "You'll let me know if you hear anything right?"   
Roy returned, "Of course. And why don't you stop by in the morning to help me with Rick. He may be shorter than me, but he's really strong. I don't know if I want to find out if I can escape from him again."   
Max saluted then closed the door behind him.   
Roy checked on Rick and then headed to the small kitchenette to get some ice for his eye. Roy was truly surprised by Rick's behavior. He had only seen Rick drunk once before in his life and even then it wasn't nearly half as bad as this. Not only that, Rick was in extreme distress over the situation with Lisa. Rick hadn't even been this upset when Pops had died. Roy poured himself some water and then went and sat down on a chair opposite from Rick.   
Roy tried to make sense of it all. Exactly when did Rick fall in love with Lisa? All Rick ever talked about was Minmei. But from the sounds of it, Rick and Lisa had spent more time together than Roy originally thought. Rick mentioned that Lisa always checked on him right after Ben died, but Rick never mentioned it. As Roy thought about it some more, there were was a time or two when Rick did mention that he had talked to a friend and had felt better afterwards, but Roy was so busy and distracted that he didn't ever think to ask Rick who this 'friend' was. Now he assumed it must have been Lisa.   
Roy pushed his blond hair out of his eyes and sighed. He felt as if he had failed Rick and Claudia somehow. He felt that he failed Rick by not being there to offer better and more advice when it came to Rick's confusion about the two women in his life. Roy also felt he had failed Claudia because it was his unspoken responsibility to push Rick in Lisa's direction. Lastly, Roy felt that he had let down Lisa most of all. They had been good friends for a number of years, she had even been his weapons officer and co-pilot of several months, and he felt as if he had neglected to take some time to sit down with her and ask her how she was doing every now and then. Maybe she would've even asked him for advice regarding what to do about Rick.   
Roy felt helpless, everywhere he looked, it seemed that all his friends and loved ones were in some sort of pain. He decided he needed the one thing that he could turn to whenever he felt this way.   
Roy wanted to see Claudia, he needed to see Claudia. Not just to talk to her about what happened to Rick, but to also hold onto her, thankful that she was alive and that she loved him.   
Roy got up from his chair and went to check on Rick. From the looks of it, he had either fallen asleep, or passed out, most likely the latter.   
Roy left a note on the coffetable, incase Rick woke up before Roy got back, and then changed his clothes, which wreaked of Rick's Scotch, and then headed off to the hospital. 

* * * * * * * 

"Doctor, are you sure you don't want me to tell him?" asked Captain Gloval, as he sat in the doctor's office, a bandage covering up a slight concussion.   
"Thank you Captain, I think it is best if I tell him," replied Wells.   
Gloval nodded and then motioned to the Communications tech.   
"Sir, Priority One message coming from the SDF-1 on the high encryption line," said Admiral Hayes' aide.   
"The SDF-1? But they know we are not suppose to have any type of communications right now..." said a confused Admiral Hayes. He wondered what could be wrong so he told the aide, "Go ahead and put it through."   
"Yes sir."   
Admiral Hayes looked at the screen and his heart started pounding and he felt a cold chill shoot from his head to his toes when he looked at the screen and saw his old friend Doctor Wells and Captain Gloval, a bandage around his head, standing side by side with somber looks on their faces.   
Admiral Hayes pushed his chair back rapidly and hurried closer to the large screen in his office, "Tell me...tell me that Lisa is alright," he said, his voice panicked and his breathing rapid.   
Doctor Wells stepped forward and said in a serious tone, "Nicholas..."   
"Oh god Jake, tell me my little girl is ok," said Admiral Hayes, his eyes wide with fear.   
"Nicholas, she got out of surgery a little while ago," said Wells quickly, to alleviate Hayes' fear that his daughter might be dead.   
Hayes let out a huge sigh of relief, but the panic was still evident in his voice when he asked, "How bad is it Jake?"   
Wells thought for a moment, should he take the risk of giving his friend false hope, or tell give into his doubts. _Never give up hope..._ He promised that to his wife and daughter, he had to keep his promise.   
"Well, _I_ think that given some time, how long, I don't know, it's possible she can make a complete recovery," said Wells, with determination in his eyes.   
"What happened?" asked Hayes in a monotone.   
"Direct hit to the bridge. She was the one closest to the breach. She lost a lot of blood, she's still in very critical condition right now," reported Wells.   
Admiral Hayes gritted his teeth and seethed, "Dammit Henry! I knew I shouldn't have let her onto that damned ship! It's just too dangerous up there!"   
Normally, Gloval might have had an explanation to try and calm down the Admiral, but Gloval could understand how upset Hayes was and so Gloval decided to remain quiet.   
"I have to see her. I'm coming up there," said a determined Hayes.   
Gloval nodded his head and said, "We have a good window, two days from now. We will send a shuttle group down to pick you up. It is best that way, because our pilot have had more experience with the Zentraedi than yours do."   
Hayes waved his hand angrily, "Forget the shuttle group, just send your best VT pilot to come down and pick me up. It's too risky for a shuttle group right now. At least one plane won't raise too much attention, so just send a VT."   
"Very well. We will send you more details in the morning," replied Gloval.   
"Send them to my office directly. For security reasons and also because I know I'm going to have a hell of a time convincing the rest of the Council that I have to go up there for a few days," said Hayes distractedly.   
Gloval nodded his acknowledgement and listened quietly as Admiral Hayes said, "Jake, you have to tell me, she's going to make it isn't she? She'll be fine right?"   
Wells hesitated for a moment then replied, "Nicholas, we'll do everything we can to make sure she has a full recovery. Please, I'm your friend, trust me."   
Hayes nodded, "I do Jake, I do. Thank you, for saving my little girl."   
Wells shook his head, "Don't thank me Nicholas, thank a man named Lieutenant Rick Hunter."   
"Rick Hunter?? Rick Hunter...I've heard that name before...wait, he was the one that rescued Lisa from Mars Base, and also the one that helped her escape off the Zentraedi ship... He's a VT pilot right?? Send him down here, he can fly me back up and that way I get the chance to thank him in person," said Hayes.   
Wells and Gloval looked at each other with some worry then Wells replied, "I don't know if he's up to it Nick. He was pretty upset today."   
"He still has two days, maybe he'll be better by then. I am specifically requesting him as my pilot," replied Hayes, sounding a bit adamant.   
"Why don't I keep an eye on him and if I think he's up to it, we will send him. If not, then we'll send Fokker, how's that?" asked Wells.   
Hayes thought over the situation for awhile and then said, "That's fine. Jake, can you send me the report of her injuries? I need to know how bad it is."   
Wells looked down at the floor and thought for a moment, then replied, "I will type up a summary right now, and have it sent to your office, give me half an hour."   
Admiral Hayes nodded his head and thanked his friend.   
Wells and Gloval signed off, and Hayes walked back to his desk slowly. He sat down in his chair and picked up the framed photo on his desk. It was a picture taken when Lisa was about 8 years old. She was standing in the middle, her mother on her left, himself standing behind her on the right.   
Hayes thought back to the last time he had seen Lisa, a year ago, when she and Gloval came down to report the latest Zentraedi findings. The Council had decided to refuse the aslyum to residents of Macross and Lisa was furious. Her father had sent her a letter explaining his actions and he had tried to speak to her afterwards as well. He had even made reservations for dinner and he had called her and left a message for her to have dinner with him so they could talk, but the last words he heard from her were in the Conference Room. She didn't return his calls and didn't show up for dinner and returned to the SDF-1 without even saying goodbye. She had no idea how much that hurt him.   
"Admiral, shall I tell them we have been delayed?" asked a man who had just entered the office.   
"No T.R., tell them I won't be attending tonight. I have some personal business to take care of," replied Hayes quietly.   
"Sir?" asked T.R. Edwards.   
"I have to go up to the SDF-1, but don't tell them that yet. I'll know more about my departure plans tommorrow. In the meantime, you go on ahead, and don't forget to keep an eye on Jennings. I agree with you Thomas, I think he's up to no good, so keep an eye on him," said Hayes as he continued to stare at the photograph of his family.   
"It will be my pleasure Admiral. Jennings will incriminate himself in due time, I am sure of it. And I would like to be there when it happens," replied Edwards a bit venomously.   
Hayes' mind wandered and he thought back to an event over 25 years prior...   
"You know, the day she was born was the happiest day of my life..." mused Hayes, a distant look in his eyes.   
"I'm sorry Admiral?" asked Edwards, not quite sure what Hayes was talking about.   
Hayes swiveled in his chair a bit, turning away from Edwards, and said somberly, "SDF-1 took a direct hit to the bridge today...Lisa was on duty. But you know, she made it through the surgery, she's always been a damn good fighter."   
Edwards was genuinely at a loss for words, knowing how much Lisa meant to the Admiral. He finally managed to say, "I'm sure she will be alright Nick. If she's already amassed three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and two Bronze Stars, then I'd say she can make it through just about anything."   
Hayes drew an uneven breath and said, "I hope you're right. I can't lose her, I just can't..."   
Edwards heard the despair in Hayes' voice and was trying to think of something to say. Of all the people and superiors he ever came in contact with, Admiral Hayes was the only one who Edwards even remotely liked. Hayes recognized Edwards' abilities when everyone else had passed him over and because of Hayes' willingness to take a risk with Edwards, Edwards was on road to a promising career, one he felt he rightly deserved, so he felt he owed some type of debt of gratitude to Admiral Hayes.   
Edwards remained silent for a few moments then finally said, "Nick, I'm sorry about your daughter."   
"Thank you Thomas," replied Hayes quietly.   
Edwards turned around to leave and added, "If there's anything you need, just let me know," then he walked out the door and headed to the nightly dinner meeting attended by the Council members. 

After sitting in his darkened office for forty minutes, reliving all the good times he had shared with his daughter, Admiral Hayes received the medical report from Wells. He stared at the document for a moment and thought to himself, '_It can't be that bad can it? We've been through this three times before, and if she got shot five times in Belgium and still made it through, surely she can make it through anything..._'   
Nicholas Hayes read the doctors report and then read it a second time, then turned off his computer and the small desk lamp, put out his cigarette, and pulled out one of the many small photoalbums that he kept in his bottom desk drawer. The one he chose was an album of pictures of Lisa and her mother, just about two years before her mother died. The set of pictures were taken while the family was on vacation at Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard.   
He had already lost his beloved wife, something he still had trouble getting over, even though she had died over a decade ago, and now being faced with the possibility that he might lose his daughter as well, the only family he had left, was just too overwhelming for him. He put his head down on his desk, on the photoalbum, and cried like he had never ever cried before in his life.   


  


* * * * * * * 

Day 3.... 

Rick woke up dazed, confused, and with a splitting headache. He felt as if someone had smacked him on the head with a bat, several times. He could taste a nasty aftertaste in his mouth and he rubbed his eyes to try and get them to focus.   
After finally getting the room to stop spinning, Rick saw Roy asleep in a chair, snoring loudly. Rick had no idea why he was in Roy's quarters or why he felt so hung over. He looked at his watch and it was 9am. He wracked his throbbing brain to try and at least remember something, anything, but it was no use, so he reached for the remote control on the coffeetable and turned on the television.   
"And now to recap our major story. The main bridge will be down for at least a weeks worth of repairs. Teams are working round the clock to get the bridge back into working order. In the meantime, all controls normally handled by the main bridge are currently being controlled at the auxillary bridge and the Captain assures us that there is no loss of productivity or operating capacity. The Captain himself, having suffered a concussion, has assured us that every member of the highly-valued and very important bridge crew has survived and, with the exception of Commander Lisa Hayes, should be back to work in a few weeks, if not sooner." The news announcer then started reporting about a story having to do with the water supply and Rick quickly turned off the television and sat back and tried to think about what he had just heard.   
Roy started to stir and then he sat up and looked at Rick.   
"Roy! What's going on here?? How come I feel like s--t? How come I'm here and what's this about the bridge crew being injured?? What happened to your eye?" asked Rick, utterly confused.   
"You don't remember anything?" asked Roy, scratching his head.   
"No...I can't remember anything right now, what _happened_?" said Rick.   
Roy exhaled loudly then said, "Listen, I'm going to go take a shower, you wait here and don't go anywhere alright? I promise I'll clear things up for you."   
"Alright, but at least tell me what's all this about the bridge crew being injured?? Is everyone alright?? Why did the announcer mention Lisa in particular??" asked Rick, in an almost demanding tone.   
Roy stared at Rick, "Damn...you really don't remember _anything_ do you?"   
Rick returned a dumbfounded look and Roy pulled a cigarette from his pocket and then his lighter and lit it, puffing on the cigarette twice before saying, "Ok, listen and don't get all panicked when I tell you this ok?? Can you do that for me?"   
Rick nodded his head.   
"The bridge suffered a direct hit yesterday, everyone is alive, but some are more injured than others...Lisa is the worst off. You were there when they pulled her out and you stayed with her during the surgery. She's still in critical condition now," explained Roy.   
Rick's mouth dropped open and he wracked his brain, desperately trying to remember something, anything at all.   
"We all had had a long day, and you were pretty upset, so afterwards, you, me, and Max went to get something to eat, but you ended up having too much to drink. We brought you back here and you passed out," continued Roy.   
Rick closed his eyes and tried in vain to remember, finally it all started to come back to him. He remembered seeing the angry look on Lisa's face, then the shot at the bridge, then holding Lisa's hand in the elevator, the rush into the operating room, the doctors telling him that they were loosing her and that Rick had to help Lisa fight. Then Rick remembered the flatline tone. That tone rang so loud in his mind that he covered his ears.   
'_We're losing her!_' shouted the doctor. That, along with the flatline tone now alternated in Rick's consciousness. He felt sick, he felt dizzy, he couldn't breathe... '_We're losing her!_' ....'Happy Birthday Rick' he heard Lisa say, then he heard the flatline tone again and the doctors shouting and then Lisa's voice again and then the flatline tone and suddenly Rick jumped out of his seat, his hands still covering his ears as he shouted, "Stop it dammit, stop it!!!"   
Roy walked carefully towards Rick, who now had a wild, almost crazy look on his face.   
"Easy there Rick, don't worry, everything's going to be ok," Roy said calmly. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Flashback ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

'Hello Rick, this is Lisa. I...I..uh... was wondering if you'd like to meet at the coffeeshop instead of the mess hall when we go over those flight schedules today.'   
'Sure Lisa, the coffeeshop beats the mess hall anyday,' replied Rick, delighted with Lisa's suggestion.   
'Ok then, I'll meet you at the usual place in about an hour,' said Lisa cheerfully.   
'Great, I'll see you then,' said Rick, unable to keep from smiling as he hung up the phone. He couldn't get over how well they were getting along this particular week. Roy was busy and so was Max, so Rick found himself spending time with Lisa. The day before they had had dinner together in the mess hall and had a great conversation about old classic movies. After Rick and Lisa parted company, Rick found himself thinking about Lisa for the rest of the evening. He had turned on the television and watched a Minmei special but as hard as he tried to concentrate on watching Minmei, images of Lisa would come back to him unbidden. It confused him a great deal, but he welcomed the distraction from having to hear Minmei go on and on and on about herself and her career. He didn't feel guilty about thinking about Lisa either, and it surprised him. 

Rick entered the coffeeshop and saw Lisa sitting at a small table. As he took his seat, a waitress came over and put down a piping hot cup of Espresso with whipped cream on top, just the way Rick liked it. Rick thanked the waitress as did Lisa, and Rick realized that Lisa must have told the waitress to be on standby with Rick's drink.   
Rick took a sip of his coffee then looked across the table to see that Lisa was watching him. When his eyes met hers she quickly looked down at the table, but a smile formed on her face slowly.   
Rick found himself smiling as well, studying Lisa's smile, and commented, 'This is a whole lot better than that noisy, stuffy, mess hall.'   
Lisa let out a light laugh then looked up at Rick briefly and then back down at the table again. Rick couldn't understand or get over how demure Lisa could be when they were alone. They would fight like mean cats and dogs over the comm but when he was alone with her and they were on good speaking terms, she reminded him of a very shy teenager sometimes.   
Lisa took a sip of her coffee then reached down for something on the floor and then put two small bags on the table and wore a huge grin as she looked at the puzzlement on Rick's face.   
'This one is yours,' said Lisa as she pushed one of the small bags towards Rick, 'and this one is mine,' she finished, as she pulled the other one back towards her.   
Rick looked at Lisa and she laughed. Her eyes were bright with excitement as she told Rick, 'Go ahead and look inside.'   
Rick looked in his bag and pulled out a stack of DVDs. As he filed through the boxes his eyes grew wider and wider until finally he exclaimed, 'I don't believe this, where did you find these?'   
By now Lisa was smiling ear to ear and she replied, 'I had this morning off, so I went on a little expedition and finally found the one and only video store that had those. Apparently, the owner had them hidden away, but I managed to talk him into parting with them.'   
Rick looked at the DVDs again, still amazed. They were the movies they had talked about at dinner the day before. Rick had told Lisa that several of them were his favorites and that he couldn't find them anywhere. Rick looked at Lisa and could not help but stare at her. Her smile lit up her entire face and Rick was possessed with the notion that her eyes seemed like sparkling emeralds. He realized again, like so many other times before, that Lisa was beautiful.   
'Now you can spend the entire weekend watching movies,' said Lisa cheerfully.   
Rick continued to stare at her for a while longer and then smiled back at her. 'So what's in your bag?' Rick asked.   
'Oh, check this out,' said Lisa as she put down her cup and dug into her bag. 'I also managed to find a few movies that I had been looking for as well, particularly this one.'   
Rick took the box from Lisa and looked at it, 'Horse Whisperer. This was the one you told me about yesterday,' said Rick as he read the story synopsis on the back of the box.   
'Yes, I can't believe I found it,' said Lisa with a nostalgic smile.   
'Tell you what, I think we both have this weekend off, why don't we have ourselves a little film festival over in one of the rec rooms on the third floor?' suggested Rick.   
Rick didn't think that Lisa's eyes could get any brighter, but they did, as she shook her head and said, 'That sounds great Rick, I would like that very much.' 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ End Flashback ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

The little film festival that they had planned didn't happen, because the very next day, they got into a huge spat over protocol and didn't talk to each other (aside from work related issues) for over a week.   
'_We're losing her!_'   
Roy had a calming had on Rick's shoulder but Rick dashed away quickly before Roy had time to react. "Wait, Rick, come back!" shouted Roy as he took off after him. When he got to the hall he could see Rick already far down the hallway, still blazing a trail. Roy ran his hand through his hair then let it plop down at his side and decided not to give chase.   


  


* * * * * * * 

"Let me see her dammit!" said Rick angrily. He still had a pounding headache from his hangover and he was in no mood to argue with anyone.   
"I'm sorry Lieutenant but she is still very critical," explained Wells sympathetically.   
"Can't you just let me look through the window or something? I'm not leaving here until I see her," said Rick steadfastly.   
Wells put his hands in his pocket and thought for a moment, then said, "Come with me Lieutenant. We stil are not allowing anyone into the room, but you can come into the ICU."   
Rick nodded his head in determination and followed the doctor into the elevator.   
After some moments of silence, Wells said, "I don't think this is my place to tell you this, but we talked to Admiral Hayes last night and he will be coming up to the SDF-1 tommorrow. He declined the shuttle group and asked only for a VT to bring him up. I mentioned that it was you that helped save Lisa and he immediately requested that you be the pilot to bring him up here."   
Rick, still suffering the aftereffects of his binge from the night before, shot the doctor a glare and said, "Why did you tell him I saved her?? I didn't save her, I'm the one who put her there in the first place for crying out loud!"   
"Calm down Lieutenant. You can't be entire certain it is your fault. I suggest that you should get over who's to blame and instead focus on helping her recovery. You can't go back and change what happened, so please look forward instead of back," replied Wells.   
"Easy for you to say, you're not the one with the guilty conscious," retorted Rick.   
Wells looked at Rick for a moment then said, "I know all about a guilty conscious. My wife and daughter were in Macross City the day of the first Zentraedi attack. They were there because I asked them to meet me for lunch, but I was delayed and was still on the SDF-1 when the city was attacked. They died and I lived, and now I have to live with that survivor's guilt everyday, so don't tell me I don't know about a guilty conscious."   
Rick looked down at his feet, his face burning with embarrassment, "I'm sorry," he mumbled.   
The elevator door opened and the two men headed down several corridors and then through a set of double doors that lead to the Intensive Care Unit.   
Rick had been here before. Not only had he himself been a patient on this unit, but he had accompanied and visited many a fellow soldier here. He hated to come to this place, the air of death palpable at every turn.   
Wells led Rick to an isolated area in the corner of the large unit and Rick knew it was where the most seriously wounded were. He felt sicker and sicker with every step.   
Wells stopped in front of a small window and picked up the phone that was near the door, "This is Wells, there's someone here who wishes to see the Commander Hayes, please open the curtain."   
The curtain opened and Wells told Rick that he would be at the nurses station. After Wells left, Rick walked slowly towards the window. He saw a very stark room that had nothing except the bed and one chair nearby. He could not really see Lisa's face because she had an oxygen mask on and there were numerous machines and monitors surrounding her. He surveyed the scene some more and realized that she was hooked up to a respirator, meaning that she could not breathe on her own.   
Rick stared at the monitors and watched the ventilator machine pump up and down and had to turn away after several moments, his eyes and heart not able to stand the sight any longer.   
He felt faint, and he thought that his legs might give out from under him, but he forced himself to turn around and look through the window again. '_She's there all by herself. It looks so lonely in there, no one should be alone at a time like this,_' thought Rick.   
He turned around to head back to find Wells, to see if he would let Rick into the room. 

Wells pondered Rick's request for a moment, then decided to allow his request. "First you must scrub down and put on a hospital gown, cap, boots, and gloves. We cannot risk her getting an infection because there's no way she would be able to fight it off. You don't have a cold or any type of sickness right now do you?" asked the doctor.   
"Does a hangover count?" asked Rick tiredly.   
"No, it doesn't. Very well, follow me," said Wells, and then he led Rick to a washroom. 

After getting washed up and into the required clothes, Rick quietly walked through the door to Lisa's room and went over to the side of her bed. He looked down and was slightly surprised to find that her face was relatively unblemished, save for the few bruises and cuts he had seen when they first pulled her off the bridge.   
The monitors beeped and blipped and he had to forcibly tune them out of his mind.   
His hands rested on the siderail of her bed and he just stood there for a long time, staring at her, his mind replaying all the good times and bad times that they had been through.   
Finally he looked behind him and saw the chair and pulled it next to the bed and sat down.   
Rick sat motionless for a few moments, not sure what to do, then he slowly and carefully took hold of Lisa's hand, being careful not to jostle the various IVs. Even though he was wearing gloves, he could tell her hand was cold. He wished the doctors weren't so paranoid about germs so he could take off his glove and be able to actually _feel_ her hand. He stared at her face for a long while, hoping that her eyes would flutter open and he would see that emerald sparkle once again, but they remained closed and her whole being remained still and silent.   
Finally, he decided to speak, so he cleared his throat and tried to sound as cheerful as possible.   
"Hey there Lisa, it's me Rick. I just thought that I'd come by and see how you were doing. Look, heh, I'm wearing the sweater you gave me for my birthday. It's pretty worn out now, I wear it all the time."   
Rick paused and waited, but still silence and stillness.   
"Well, I...I don't know if I ever really told you how much I appreciated this gift...and everything else you've...uh...done for me...you know, like all the times you'd listen to me whenever I needed someone to talk to or when I had an idea about something and you backed me up..." Rick paused again, the words were getting harder and harder to speak, and his deep emotions were starting to take over.   
"I...I don't know why we argue so much...I really don't, and I wish we wouldn't argue so much... because I really have a great time when we're together and aren't arguing... and I'm really sorry about the fight we had before the bridge was hit... in fact, if it weren't for me being such a jerk and making you go look up the fuel capacity in the manual, you probably wouldn't be this injured... I feel so bad about all this, I really really do, and I'll...never be able to forgive myself." Rick looked at Lisa again and wondered if she could hear anything he was saying.   
Rick heard nothing except the sound of the monitors and machines.   
"I...I want you to know that I would trade places with you right now without thinking about it...I wish it were me in your place right now...I know you probably don't believe me when I say that, but I'm telling you the truth. You...you have become very important to me...and I don't know what I'd do...if you weren't in my life..."   
Rick leaned his head against the side rail, unable to continue. He truly didn't know what he would do if she weren't in his life anymore.   
He sniffled and then continued, "I think you're the most intelligent, courageous, sharp-witted woman I've ever met. And and you're very beautiful too. I never told you how much I love your smile and how your green eyes hypnotize me sometimes..."   
"When...when you get better then maybe we can go out sometime...you know, like on a date or something...I heard the Macross Orchestra is great, and I think it would be nice to get dressed up and all...I've never seen you dressed up...I bet you look stunning, and...I'd be so proud and honored to have you by my side... oh s--t, that must sound like I'm trying to show off to the other guys or something, no, I mean, I think you'd look great, but that's not why I like you, well, I mean, not the _only_ reason why I like you. We always have something to talk about and we never have a dull moment together and I enjoy your company very much..."   
Rick sighed and sat back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. Lisa seemed so devoid of any signs of life it was as if she already dead. And what if she _did_ die, what would he do? How would he go on? Because, next to Roy dying, the second worst thing that could happen to him would be if Lisa were to die. He thought about it some more and realized that even Minmei's death wouldn't hurt him as badly as Lisa's death.   
Rick sat back up and scooted his chair next to the bed and gripped Lisa's hand more firmly and said, "Now you listen to me, you're going to get better alright? And you're going to get better really soon and when you do, well, I'll come over and check on you every day and if you want, I will stay with you too. Because...you can't leave me, dammit. Do you hear me? Lisa Hayes do you hear me?? I'm not going to let you leave me. I know it sounds selfish of me but the fact is, I _need_ you in my life. I need to know that you'll always be there to listen to me and give me advice and encouragement. I know that Roy and Max can do that too but it's not the same dammit, it's just not the same..." The tears rolled down Rick's face but he kept his voice steady and resolute. "And I promise you that things will change, I will take the time to listen to you, just like you listen to me...and I'll try to be more patient and less arrogant so that way we won't get into so many fights...and I'll do anything, anything at all, whatever you want...just don't... just don't die on me..._please_ _don't die_!"   
Rick looked at Lisa again and waited for a full minute, but she remained still and silent. Rick could no longer stand it anymore and quickly stood up and said in a choked up voice, "I have to go. I promise I'll come back again later." He grasped her hand one more time then let it go and leaned over to give her a kiss on the forehead. He hovered over for a few seconds more, then turned around and walked out of the room.   
Rick closed the door behind him then leaned with his back against the door and covered his face with his hands. He felt so helpless and he couldn't ever remember a time in his life when he felt such despair.   
"Lieutenant," said Captain Gloval.   
Rick stood up straight instantly and saluted. Gloval returned the salute and asked Rick if he could speak to him for a moment. After walking to the small waiting room, Gloval turned to Rick and said, "From the look on your face I guess she's still the same."   
Rick nodded his head and then wiped his eyes.   
Gloval sighed and continued, "I have a request to ask of you, but you do not have to do it if you don't feel up to it."   
"Is it about flying Admiral Hayes up here?" asked Rick.   
"Yes, I guess Doctor Wells must have mentioned it to you," replied Gloval.   
"I don't know why you guys told him that I saved Lisa's life, I didn't," said Rick, shaking his head.   
"But you did Rick," said Gloval.   
Rick held his tongue to keep from snapping at Gloval. Couldn't these people understand?   
"You did save her," affirmed Gloval, "and you saved her twice before. I guess Nicholas wants to show his appreciation by entrusting you to be the one to fly him up here. He probably wants to talk to you and get to know you better."   
"I don't think any of you understand-" protested Rick.   
"No, _you_ are the one who doesn't understand Rick," retorted Gloval, "listen, let's not get into this now, all I want to know is if you will fly Admiral Hayes up here or not."   
Rick sat still for a moment and thought about it. _It's the least I can do for her, I suppose. She has only mentioned her father briefly a few times, but then again, I always talked so much about myself she probably never got the chance to tell me about him._   
"Alright, I'll do it. It's the least I can do. And, I think I need to get back into my plane to clear my head and think things through," replied Rick.   
"Very good, I'm sure the Admiral will be pleased. Check with me later this evening for the final flight schedule," said Gloval, then he turned around and headed back towards Lisa's room.   


  


* * * * * * * 

"Doctor Wells, I have the reports on Lisa," said Jean Grant as she walked into Wells' office.   
"Very good Jean, please sit down," said Wells from behind his desk.   
"Internal bleeding seems to be in check, respiratory function remains the same, cardiac function has improved slightly, but..." said Jean with a hint of apprehension in her voice.   
"But..." said Wells, prodding Jean to elaborate.   
"Neurological function has decreased by about five percent," said Jean quietly, as she looked down at her hands folded on her lap.   
"Damn. That's not good. Not good at all. This could be our worse nightmare come true... Get the neurological team assembled for a meeting sometime today so we can do a consultation," said Wells with agitation.   
"Yes doctor," replied Jean before heading back to her office to make the requested phonecalls.   


* * * * * * * 

"Khyron, you deliberately disobeyed orders one too many times," boomed Breetai's angry voice, "therefore you have been temporarily relieved of duty and will be confined to the brig on Azonia's ship for a duration of two months."   
"You cannot do that to me!" shouted Khyron.   
"Nonesense, it has already been done," smirked Azonia as she watched Khyron and Grel being fitted with wrist and leg shackles.   
"This is unacceptable, I will protest this with Dolza!" yelled Khyron in fury.   
"Dolza is the one who ordered the punishment Khyron," replied Breetai.   
Khyron growled but said nothing.   
"Come now Khyron, it is only for two months," said Azonia in an arched voice.   
Azonia waved her hand and Grel and a kicking and shouting Khyron were hauled away to the brig.   
"He really did it this time. The bridge was nearly destroyed. We must wait for them to repair it, it must be repaired to the way it was or the Protoculture weapons will not function the way they should, and the ship would not be nearly as useful to us," said Breetai as he looked at Azonia on the viewscreen.   
"Agreed. I will order all my ships to standown for a two-week period. Is that enough?" asked Azonia.   
"Yes, I believe that is sufficient. So it is agreed? No attacks whatsoever on the ship. However if they continue heading towards their planet, we might have to come up with some plan of action. But we will worry about that if the time comes. That is all," said Breetai, and then he blanked the various commanders off the viewscreens.   


* * * * * * * 

"Hey there tall, blond, and handsome," said Claudia as she watched Roy walk through the door.   
Roy smiled as he sat down on the chair next to Claudia's bed and replied, "Well, it seems our little patient is feeling better today."   
"A whole lot better than yesterday, and not so drugged out either," said Claudia as she held out her hand to Roy.   
Roy took her hand and kissed it, then said, "I stopped by last night, but you were sound asleep. You were snoring away, so I figured that was a good sign."   
Claudia rolled her eyes and Roy laughed and remarked, "Oh come on, you know I never pass up a chance to get in a dig about your snoring."   
Claudia laughed lightly and said, "Ok, fine, I got a few stories or two about _your_ snoring that I could go around telling."   
Roy shrugged and reclined in his chair, then Claudia exclaimed, "Roy?! What happened to your eye?!"   
"Oh...this...it's a long story," said Roy as he patted his sore eye and bruised cheek.   
"Did someone hit you?? Did you get into a fight again??" asked Claudia with a motherly tone.   
"No, I didn't get into a fight exactly...this shiner here is courtesy of my little brother Rick," said Roy with a slight nervous chuckle.   
"What happened?" asked Claudia. She looked at Roy and he seemed hesitant and his cheeful demeanor changed into one more serious. She knew this so well and knew that Roy was bothered by something.   
"Tell me," she said as she squeezed Roy's hand.   
Roy exhaled loudly and began his recap of the previous nights' events.   
"Well, Rick was really upset yesterday after Lisa got out of surgery. I mean he was really shell-shocked. So Max and I took him over to get something to eat and Rick ordered a drink, and then another, and then another..."   
Claudia held up her hand, "Waita minute honey, I thought you said Rick never drank."   
"He doesn't. But last night he was so upset that he drank about 3 Scotches and half of Max's beer," returned Roy.   
Claudia huffed, "Roy, why did you let him get drunk?"   
Roy ran his hand through his hair then replied, "I don't know. He was just so upset I didn't know what else to do."   
Claudia sighed, "We already have Lisa with a bit of a drinking problem, we don't need Rick starting too. Can you imagine if both of them were drunk and ran into each other?"   
Roy remained quiet and Claudia asked, "Ok, so _how_ did you get that black eye?"   
"Well, when we were at the restaurant, Rick was drunk, but he was a rambling, silly drunk. However when we got him home, I accidently tore the sweater he was wearing, it was that cornflower blue one that Lisa gave him for his birthday. Once that sweater ripped it was like something ripped inside of him too and he got mad and violent and hit me...I'd never seen him like that before..._ever_."   
Claudia stared straight ahead, trying to picture the scene, then said, "I just can't picture it. I didn't think he cared that much about Lisa..."   
"Yeah, same here. It really took me by surprise, and this isn't just because of guilt either," remarked Roy.   
Claudia looked at Roy, waiting for him to elaborate.   
"He really babbled about her alot when he was drunk, and if you ask me, it was his subconscious talking. I don't even think he remembers what he said last night, and if I told him, he probably wouldn't believe me right now," mused Roy.   
"What did he say?" asked Claudia, feeling quite curious.   
"Ohh...my. Well, first of all, he went on and on about what a hottie he thinks Lisa is. He also talked about Minmei and how she was such a tease and even called her a b---h," said Roy with a small laugh.   
"No way! He called his precious Miss Macross a b---h?!" exclaimed Claudia with surprise.   
Roy shook his head, "He sure did. Called her a tease too, and compared how Lisa was better than Minmei. Then he told us of a dream he had about both Minmei and Lisa."   
"Uh oh...I don't know if I want to hear this..." said Claudia with dread.   
Roy shook his head, "No don't worry, he wouldn't tell us the details. But he said that Lisa and Minmei were fighting over him and Lisa won and kicked Minmei out of the house and that after that Rick got Lisa pregnant with twins."   
Despite her throbbing headache and aching mid-section, Claudia laughed for quite some time.   
"I was surprised too. It seems his attraction to Lisa is more stronger than we thought, not just emotional but physical as well," added Roy.   
"Well, I'll be...but...did he say he loved her?" asked Claudia, searching Roy's face for the answer even before he spoke it.   
"No," said Roy shaking his head. "I think he's probably just too scared and confused to admit that right now."   
"Hmm...but if he didn't say it even if he was drunk, then maybe he really doesn't love her..." pondered Claudia.   
"I don't know, I still think he does, but that the notion is just so overwhelming, that even his conscious is afraid to admit it," offered Roy.   
Claudia sighed, "I hope you're right."   
"I hope so too," said Roy, "So...now, as for you and me...do you think the doctor would get mad if I kissed you?"   
Claudia smiled, "Well maybe, but I won't tell."   
Roy clapped his hands together, "Oh yeah!" he exclaimed, before leaning over and kissing the love of his life.   
  


* * * * * * *

Admiral Hayes had informed the rest of the Council that he would not be attending the morning meeting but that he would be at the dinner meeting. Luckily, his absence from morning meetings was not an uncommon occurrance and no one made a fuss about him not being present. This allowed him time to make preparations for his departure for the SDF-1.   
He had pretty much finished all his arrangements by mid-afternoon and now found himself with some free time on his hands.   
He pulled out some old home movies and spent a good several hours just sitting on the couch, smoking and drinking glasses of wine and reliving old memories. After he finally shut off the television he sat and stared at the wall as he thought about how things were between him and Lisa at the present time. They were not on good terms and it pained him greatly. He knew he made mistakes in the past and for most of them he had tried to apologize to Lisa, but she wouldn't give him the chance. He wondered if there was anyway to make her realize just how much he loved her. He had tried to be the best father he could, especially after Lisa's mother died, and for all his over-protectiveness, his motive was purely to watch out for Lisa, not to control her, but apparently she didn't see it that way.   
He was eager to see his daughter and even more eager to get the chance to talk to her and hope that she would finally give him a chance to explain himself to her and that she would hopefully finally listen to him and love him like she used to.   
There were only two wishes Nicholas Hayes ever wanted, and they were not to be rich and famous and important like he was now. All he ever wished for in his life, in it's current state, was that his daughter be happy and that she love him.   
Nick Hayes sighed and realized he had to momentarily shelve his current concerns and try and figure out any counter-arguments he might need when the Council was told that he would be leaving to stay on the SDF-1 for a few weeks.   
'_They have to let me go see her_,' he thought to himself. '_If they don't...then I'll resign_..._because nothing is going to stop me from being by my little girl's side, especially when she needs me the most_.' 

  


to be continued......... 

next time: a very Admiral Hayes-centered chapter :) 

=========================   
Authors notes:   
Thanks to everyone for the reviews and help with Admiral Hayes' name. Having had half the people tell me it was Donald and half the people tell me it was Nicholas, I decided to go with Nicholas, because it sounds more distinguished and Admiral Hayes looks like a Nicholas. And because everytime I hear the name 'donald' I always imagine Donald Duck. LOL! So I wouldn't be able to write any Admiral Hayes scenes very effectively if I always thought of Donald, as in Donald Duck. :) 

To pangeman: Please post/write your story!! Just because I wrote mines first and/or it's similar to yours don't let it deter you. Please post it!! I want to read it, especially if it's another Rick-Lisa fic!! Cheers! :)   


This story has become a monster and is looking like it will be much much much much longer than I had intended. I guess the phrase 'short story' just doesnt exist in my vocabulary. LOL 

I was very busy this weekend and will be a bit busy the rest of the week so I haven't even started on my To the STars chapter 21 yet! Boohoo!! 

I hope this part here that you just read is not too disjointed, I didn't get a good chance to sit down and write all the way through, but rather got a half hour here and there. I woudl much rather get a whole afternoon to sit and just do nothing but write, I think the story flows better when I get a chance to do that. But I wanted to get this part posted ASAP because I don't know when I'll get the next part out, I really want to start on the To The Stars chapter 21. Whew! Writing two stories in different timelines is fun, but sometimes confusing! LOL! 

Thanks to those people who have posted new Rick-Lisa stories or chapters, yeah!!!! And to those who have stories out there in their head, please write them!! Or, at least, if you dont want to post them publically, send them to me so I can read them!! LOL!   
  



	6. Part 5

Robotech Macross: "What If...?"   
Story 1 part 5

Day 3 continued....   


Rick had decided to go on patrol, he needed to be flying in order to try and clear his wrecked mind a bit, but it didn't help. Everytime he called up to the now auxillary bridge, it reminded him of Lisa. Whenever he received coordinates, it reminded him of Lisa. Whenever he looked at his instruments and looked at the comm screen to the bridge, it reminded him of Lisa. He had hoped that each time he looked at that screen, he would see Lisa. But he didn't, and he realized that he wouldn't see her on that screen for quite some time.   
He managed to clear everything from his mind for the next two hours, as hard as that was to do, in order to not lose concentration and either end up crashing into a wingman or crashing into the SDF-1. He was proud of himself for being crash-free for this patrol but he knew he would not be able to sustain his concentration for very long. He wondered if he should take some time off, but what would he do? He wanted to be by Lisa's bedside but it was just too difficult for him to stay there very long. Just being there in the room with her being practically lifeless made him feel as if his heart were being ripped out from his chest.   
After landing and then going to shower and change, Rick headed to Mess Hall for dinner. He carried his tray back to his table but just picked at his food. He looked around him and saw people seemingly enjoying each others company. He watched couples in particular and remembered the many times when he and Lisa would come to the Mess to go over reports and schedules. A wave of emptiness came over him and he left his table and tossed his unfinished dinner into the trash.   
Rick wandered aimlessly through the halls of the SDF-1 and ended up near the quarters of the bridge crews. He ended up in the hall where Lisa's quarters were located and went up to her door. '_Why didn't I stop by and see her when I had the chance?_' Rick stared at the door and put his hand against the wall just to the right of the doorbell. He wondered if he should ring and hope for an improbable miracle, that Lisa would open the door and greet him with what he so longed to see for the past two days, bright green eyes and a smile.   
The image of Lisa so strongly occupied all of Rick's thoughts at the moment that he didn't hear Sammie walk up.   
"Hello Rick..." said Sammie quietly.   
Rick turned around, his heart beating rapidly, not knowing who it was and hoping against hope that it was Lisa. Rick got his eyes to focus and he realized that it was Sammie who was standing in front of him.   
"Sammie...uh...hi..." said Rick, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice.   
"I'm sorry, I hope I didn't startle you," replied Sammie, studying Rick's face and trying to get a gauge of his emotions.   
Rick shook his head, "It's alright."   
Sammie watched Rick and noticed a haunted look on his face, even his blue eyes, which always seemed to glow like neon, looked faded, worn out with despair.   
"I guess you must be wondering what I'm doing here," said Rick as he turned around and leaned against the wall.   
Sammie didn't know what to say so she just simply shrugged. She was indeed surprised to find Rick there, but after thinking about it, given what had happened for the past two days, it occurred to her that she shouldn't really be surprised. It also got her thinking about..just how much _did_ Rick care for Lisa? She believed that it was much more than she or anyone, and maybe even Rick himself, had originally thought.   
"I...I just couldn't stay away...I was here the day she went home sick, the day before the bridge was hit, and I had come to see if she was ok, but..." Rick stopped, took a deep breath, then sighed loudly.   
"But...?" asked Sammie, impatient to know what happened.   
Rick looked down at the ground and said quietly, "But...Minmei called and asked me to come over right then...so I did...I regret it, I really do."   
Sammie was about to comment when she saw a few people walking in their direction, so she waited until they passed then said, "Rick, I don't think this is the best place to talk. It's shift-change time, lots of people will be coming and going. Why don't...why don't we go to my quarters and have some tea or coffee."   
Rick shuffled his feet and mumbled, "It's alright, I don't want to bother you, you must be tired."   
Sammie shook her head and said, "No, I'll be fine. Besides, it's kinda lonely there without Kim and Vanessa. We can keep each other company for a little while. I can show you our photoalbums, we've got quite a few pictures of Lisa I can show you, if you want to see them."   
Rick looked up when he heard Lisa's name and nodded, "Ok, I'd very much like to see them."   


Rick poured two cups of coffee and waited for Sammie to come out of the bathroom. When she came out, dressed in a comfortable set of sweats, she went to the bookshelf and pulled a few binders and set them down on the table.   
"I'm sorry, I didn't ask how Kim and Vanessa are," said Rick as he noticed how quiet the room seemed to be without it's other two occupants.   
"They're doing pretty good, I saw them before I came home. Kim will have to have some weeks of rehab, but she should be ok. Vanessa should be back on her feet sooner than Kim," replied Sammie as she took a sip of her coffee.   
Rick put down his cup then picked up one of the photo albums and began to leaf through it.   
"There's a Lisa section in the back," stated Sammie, "that's our album from when we all went to South Macross Island for a three-day vacation."   
Rick quickly skipped to the back pages and eagerly looked over the various pictures. There was one with Lisa and Sammie, both wearing identical sunhats, waving at the camera. Then there was one of Lisa and Kim arm wrestling, then another one of Lisa manning the wheel of a small yacht, then another one of Lisa shopping. Rick noticed that in each picture, Lisa was smiling and seemed extremely happy, and it brought a smile to his face.   
Sammie watched Rick and saw that he was entranced with the pictures and decided to play devil's advocate a bit, "Hey Rick, check this one out over here, this is the page from when we went swimming in the lagoon, look at the water, isn't it beautiful!?"   
Rick looked over the page and first saw a picture of the Trio, Lisa, Claudia, and Roy, in swim attire. Lisa was standing behind Sammie, so he couldn't get a good look at what she looked like in her bathing suit. He looked at the next picture that had Sammie and Lisa and Sammie pointed to the picture and exclaimed, "Look! Don't we look great in our bathing suits?!"   
Rick chuckled and then studied the picture more carefully but Sammie cut him off by saying, "Wait, you don't want to see me with my big butt, turn the page, there's some good ones of Lisa by herself. We teased her so much on that trip, we kept telling she should go try out for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, heehee."   
Rick turned the page with anticipation and Sammie smiled as she saw Rick's eyes nearly pop out of his head.   
"What did I tell you!" exclaimed Sammie. "Here here, look at this one. We wanted it to look just like one of those magazine pictures, so we made Lisa go back into the water and come out again, like 8 times, because we wanted to get the picture perfect. I think it looks great!"   
Rick stared at the picture, it did indeed look like something from a magazine and Lisa did indeed look like a swimsuit model.   
Sammie let a minute go by, watching Rick just sit and stare at the picture.   
"I bet you never imagined Lisa could look like that huh Rick?" said Sammie quietly, not sure if she had any right to interfere in Rick and Lisa's relationship. She, Vanessa, and Kim had speculated that Lisa was in love with Rick and concluded that Lisa was keeping her distance because of Rick's involvement with Minmei. Although she found Rick annoying at times, he could be a very nice guy, not to mention that he was really cute, and even though Lisa was five years older than Rick, the Trio thought they made a perfect couple.   
"She's...gorgeous," said Rick quietly, almost as a whisper to himself.   
Sammie wanted to add that Lisa should've entered the Miss Macross contest but decided to keep her mouth shut for the time being.   
"Um...Rick, if you want, you can have that picture. You can have any other ones of Lisa that you want too. Go ahead and pick out which ever ones you want," offered Sammie.   
Rick nodded slowly and said quietly, "Yes, if you don't mind, I'd like that very much."   
Sammie sat quietly for a few minutes and watched as Rick looked through the pages of photos, then decided to be a bit inquisitive, "Rick, can I ask you something? And you don't have to answer if you don't want to."   
Rick looked at her, and thought for a moment, then said, "Sure, go ahead and ask whatever you want."   
Sammie fidgeted slightly then asked, ""I...well...I was just surprised at how much you've been affected by all that's happened. I didn't think...uh...what I mean is...well, I know you must feel really bad about what happened, but it wasn't your fault..."   
"Yes it is my fault Sammie," interrupted Rick.   
"No, it isn't," said Sammie firmly, "even if Lisa hadn't gone to the front of the bridge, she'd still be the one closest to the breach."   
Rick mulled it over for awhile and realized that Sammie was right, but that didn't disspate his guilt.   
"You said you wanted to ask a question...?" said Rick flatly, wanting Sammie to come out and just ask what was on her mind.   
Sammie began cautiously, "Oh, yeah, well...I guess my question is...how do you...feel about Lisa? I know you guys fight alot but when you don't, you seem to get along pretty well. I, and everyone else I guess, is just surprised that you were so upset, it was almost as if..."   
"As if what?" Rick cut in.   
"I don't know...it's just that I would expect Roy to act like that if it were Claudia, or Max if it were Miriya," explained Sammie, wondering if Rick understood what she was trying to hint at.   
Rick looked at her with a perplexed look and she added, "Um...well I know you're involved with Minmei...so I guess if it were Minmei instead of Lisa you'd probably be even _more_ upset..."   
Sammie saw that Rick was completely confused and so she pretended to yawn and get rid of Rick before she stuck her foot in her mouth anymore than she already had.   
She got up and went to get an envelope for the pictures Rick was going to take with him. As Sammie was placing the pictures in the envelope she said, "You know Rick, you're a really good friend. I'm sure Lisa would really appreciate all that you've done for her."   
Rick stood up and had barely heard Sammie's last comment. He was too busy trying to answer the question, how did he feel about Lisa? Then he was also trying to figure out whether he would be even more upset if it were Minmei who had been injured rather than Lisa.   
Rick's mind was a jumble and he shuffled out of Sammie's room, weakly thanking her for the pictures and wishing her a good night before heading back to the barracks.   


Back in his small room, Rick changed his clothes and climbed up to his bunk and laid down and stared at the ceiling. He had thought about going to see Lisa again but he couldn't bring himself to do it.   
As he stared at the ceiling, Sammie's question and comment kept alternating in his mind, how did he feel about Lisa? and would he be more upset if it were Minmei injured? He thought that the first question would be more difficult to answer. As for how he'd react if Minmei were injured... he tried to create the scenario in his mind and no matter how many times he tried, he didn't think he could feel that stinging pain of losing Minmei that he did when he thought about losing Lisa. Maybe it was because, even though he tried to dismiss the notion, the fact was that Minmei really didn't seem to care about him very much, at least not the way he wanted her to, and it made him feel hopeless most of the time.   
Lisa, on the other hand, when she wasn't mad at him, was very concerned and interested to know what was going on in his life and how he was feeling and she eminated a deep, real, caring and compassionate vibe when he was with her.   


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ _Flashback_ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

Rick had just finished writing the condolance letter to Ben Dixon's parents, even though it couldn't be delivered until the SDF-1 was officially allowed to land on Earth and re-establish communications on the ground. Rick needed to write it, he felt it was his duty and thought that he personally should write it, instead of the Casualty Office, in order to make it more honorable to Ben's memory.   
Rick wandered through Macross Central Park. It was near midnight and there was no one in sight. '_Good, I need to be alone..._' Rick thought to himself.   
Rick thought that maybe he should tell Minmei, since she had seen Ben a few times at the restaurant. Rick found a park bench and sat down and pulled out his cellphone.   
"Hi Minmei," said Rick quietly.   
"Hello, oh Rick hi. Listen, I was just about to go to sleep, I'm exhausted. Can you make it quick please," replied Minmei.   
"Umm, yeah sure. I just wanted to let you know that Ben Dixon was killed in action yesterday," said Rick somberly.   
"Ben Dixon?...Um, I'm sorry, I don't recognize the name," answered Minmei.   
Rick looked at the phone in disbelief, then replied, "Ben Dixon, you know, my wingman. We had been to the restaurant several times."   
"Oh...oh, the guy with the blue hair and glasses?" asked Minmei, still clueless.   
"No Minmei, Ben, the tall stocky guy. The one who always ordered two steaks," replied Rick, starting to grow frustrated.   
"Oh...gee, I'm sorry Rick, I've been so busy, it's as if my days at the restaurant were all a big blur, hehehe," said Minmei in a lighter manner than Rick thought appropriate.   
'_Doesn't she understand? Ben died!_' thought Rick angrily.   
"Well, I thought you would've remembered him, which is why I thought to call you and let you know, anyways, I'm sorry I took up your time, you have a good night Minmei," said Rick, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.   
"I'm sorry Rick. You know, maybe if you go out and try and not think about it then you won't feel so bad, you know, like just put it behind you. Well anyways, thanks for calling Rick, goodnight," said an unaffected Minmei.   
Rick heard the dialtone and was so angry that he felt like throwing his phone on the floor. Instead, he decided he'd head to the gym and hit the punching bag for awhile. He started stalking off and rounded the corner around a group of tall shrubs when he ran right into someone.   
"I'm so sorry!" Rick apologized.   
"It's alright, next time, I'll remember to wear my hockey gear whenever I'm walking out here," replied Lisa as she rubbed her shoulder.   
"Lisa!" exclaimed Rick, surprised, that of all people, he should run into her.   
Lisa gave him a small smile and shrugged as she continued to nurse her shoulder.   
"I'm so sorry! It was so deserted out here I didn't think anyone else was here except me," explained Rick, then put a gentle hand on Lisa's shoulder and asked, "you're not hurt too badly are you? Do we need to go to the emergency room or something? I can take you if you want."   
Lisa hesitated for a moment then answered, "No...thank you though, but I'll be fine."   
Rick dropped his hands down at his side, "Damn, I'm really sorry Lisa. I guess I was just too preoccupied and upset that I just stormed through here without paying attention."   
Rick saw Lisa's eyes register concern and even a bit of fright before she asked softly, "Why are you upset Rick? It must be about Ben, would you like to talk about it? I mean...if you want to."   
Rick felt relieved that she offered to listen, in fact, he always felt relieved when she offered to listen to him, which was often, but he knew it was late and after he had seemingly injured her he didn't want to bother her further by keeping her up half the night listening to his grievances.   
"That's so nice of you, but I don't want to keep you up, it's late and now I've bummed out your shoulder..." replied Rick apologetically.   
Lisa shook her head, "Nonsense. You know that I'm always available to listen to you, no matter what time of the day."   
Rick knew she meant what she said and looked around them and saw another park bench several dozen feet in front of them, so he gently put his hand on the back of her shoulder and escorted over to the bench. Once he was assured that Lisa was comfortably seated, he began his account of his phone conversation with Minmei. 

"I'm sorry she wasn't more sympathetic Rick," replied Lisa quietly, after hearing Rick's story.   
"Yeah, me too. Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. She seems to live in her own little world all the time," said Rick, leaning back against the bench, then he chuckled a bit and shook his head, "I guess that's Minmei for you."   
Lisa remained quiet. Rick always noticed that, although there were many opportunities present in their conversations, Lisa never took any cheap shots at Minmei, even though she could have easily. Rick respected this about Lisa, he thought it showed a lot of class.   
"I...I wrote the condolance letter before I came out here to the park," Rick said as he stood up. He then looked back at Lisa with a pained look that reflected the pain he felt and said, "That's one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do..."   
Lisa watched as Rick covered his eyes with his right hand and bit out in a choked up voice, "Dammit, I miss him already..."   
Lisa got up quickly, and despite the pain in her shoulder, wrapped her arms around Rick.   
"Why? Why Ben?" asked a grieving Rick as he held onto Lisa.   
"I'm sorry, I don't know why..." answered Lisa softly, emotion in her voice as well.   
Rick held onto Lisa tightly, he felt so glad that she was there to hold onto, it comforted him knowing that he wasn't alone and that someone understood what he felt. He remained quiet for several more minutes, just letting his mind replay memories of Ben and then when he finished revisiting the past he turned his attention to the present. Lisa was still holding onto him and she had remained quiet throughout, just letting him be and grieve in peace, instead of trying to tell him to put it behind him and move on, like Minmei had told him to do. Lisa understood that it would take a long time to heal, and Rick appreciated that.   
Rick let his senses take over and realized how good it felt to be in Lisa's arms. He didn't ever want to let go. She gave him a calmness and comfort that he couldn't feel from anyone else, not even Minmei. Minmei. What would she think of him being in the arms of another woman? He didn't care at this point, all he knew was that he didn't want to leave Lisa's embrace. He wondered what was going on in Lisa's mind and if she felt the same way about him, then he remembered that he had shoulder-checked Lisa earlier and blurted out, "Oh! You're shoulder! I'm sorry, did I squeeze you too tight? Did I hurt you?"   
Lisa looked as if she were trying to hide a smile as she answered, "No, not at all Rick, in fact, I totally forgot about my shoulder, and...what do you know, it feels much better now."   
Rick apologized again, "I'm so sorry,"   
"It's alright," said Lisa as she held up her hand to halt him from apologizing again.   
"So...what were you doing out here, just out of curiosity," asked Rick.   
"I take a walk out here, once a week, just to be alone and have some peace and quiet to think about things," said Lisa as she looked at the ground.   
Rick nodded his head, "Yeah, it's nice to have a place to escape to after a hectic day."   
Lisa nodded and they both started walking towards their respective quarters, on the way there swapping stories about Ben. As they neared the floor for Rick's quarters, they stopped at a small lookout window and reflected for a little while, then Rick got ready to head to his room.   
"Well, I...first of all, I want to apologize for hurting your shoulder. Please, if you are having trouble with it let me know and I'll come over and massage it or something, it's the least I can do," said a repentant Rick.   
Lisa gave a tired smile and assured Rick that she would be fine.   
As Rick turned to leave he stopped and turned back to Lisa and walked up closer to her, "Lisa...thank you. Thank you for being here for me. I really...really do appreciate it. I feel better now, sometimes it makes all the difference in the world to just have someone to listen to you and understand you," then Rick leaned over and gave Lisa a quick kiss on the cheek.   
Lisa looked shocked and Rick wondered if maybe he shouldn't have kissed her, but Lisa quickly shook herself out of her stupor and said, in somewhat of a pained voice it occured to Rick, "You don't have to thank me. You know I'm here for you whenever you need me. I'm glad you're feeling better, and it is true, it does help to have someone to talk to." She looked as if she was about to give Rick a return kiss on the cheek but she she stopped herself and hurriedly said goodnight and quickly headed into the nearby elevator.   
Rick sighed and headed to his room, wishing that Lisa was still there with him. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ _End Flashback_ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

Rick rolled over on his side and tried to remember what it felt like to hold Lisa in his arms. _How do you feel about Lisa? _ Sammie's question replayed itself over and over again. How _did_ he feel about Lisa? He wished that he had an immediate answer but that was not possible at the moment. He felt too many emotions and they were so jumbled together that he couldn't possibly begin to make sense out of them all.   
He grew restless just trying to think about one thing or another so he got down from his bunk and decided to look through the pictures he had received from Sammie. He liked all of them, especially the swimsuit one and one of Lisa sitting on the beach looking out over the ocean, a thoughtful, intelligent look on her face.   
Rick turned on his computer and powered on his scanner and decided to enlarge some of the pictures so he could stick them on his wall. He had invested a fair amount of money on a good printer and scanner because he had collected a great deal of Minmei photos and would retouch them or enlarge them and print them out in his spare time. There was a large Minmei photo on the side wall nearest his bunk, but he felt he had grown tired of it and pulled it down. There was also another Minmei poster on his door, but he decided he was tired of that too and also took it down.   
After Rick had completed all of his scanning he opened up his graphics program and had an idea of making a new desktop background wallpaper from the photos he had scanned. After about an hour of adding and arranging the pictures, adding tints and shadows and other special effects, Rick was satisfied with the Lisa-themed desktop wallpaper he had come up with.   
He then enlarged and printed out his two favorite Lisa pictures and decided to call it a night, but first called the hospital to see how Lisa was doing. 

"I'm afraid there's no change Rick," replied Dr. Jean Grant, the new medical intern, and Claudia Gran'ts sister-in-law.   
"Ok. Well, please let me know if anything comes up," replied Rick with discouragement.   
"I will Rick, you get some rest now, you've got a long trip ahead of you tommorrow," remarked Jean.   
"Trip?? Oh s--t! I forgot! Thanks for reminding me," said Rick.   
Jean added, "I think Captain Gloval said something about leaving a message for you at the check-in station."   
"Message...I didn't even bother to ask them, ok, I'll go check now, thanks again!" said Rick before hanging up the phone and dashing out the door.   


The orders were clear and simple, leave at 8am and pick up Admiral Hayes at Alaska Base and bring him back to the SDF-1.   
Rick felt nervous. He had never heard much about Lisa's father and didn't know if he could make a good impression on the Admiral.   
Rick set his alarm and decided to try and sleep instead of worrying.   
  
  
  


* * * * * * * 

"Nicholas, you have to be out of your mind, you just can run off whenever you want," said Blaine with annoyance.   
Hayes pounded his fist on the table and shot to his feet, "Damn you, my daughter could be _dying_! Don't you understand?? Unless all of you suddenly forgot what it's like to have children."   
Herbert reclined back in his chair and replied, "Of course we know what it's like to be a parent Nick, but they are old enough to take care of themselves. I'm sure they are taking extremely good care of your daughter aboard the SDF-1."   
"Weren't you listening to what I said?! Lisa was nearly killed! I need to be there with her," said Hayes, flairing with anger and desperation.   
Zukav turned to the rest of the Council and said calmly, "I think we can handle things here for awhile, until Nicholas gets back."   
Councilman Blaine whined, "But Nick is the mastermind behind the Grand Cannon! What happens if we are attacked?? Then what are we going to do if he's stuck on the SDF-1??"   
Edwards rolled his eyes in disgust at Blaine's cowardice.   
"T.R. will remain here to help you incase that happens, although I highly doubt you'll have to worry about anything. I am going to the SDF-1, otherwise..." Hayes lingered on his sentence.   
"Otherwise what?" asked Herbert.   
Hayes glared at them all then answered, "Otherwise I shall resign."   
The room erupted into chaos and everyone except Zukav and Edwards questioned Hayes' sanity. Finally Zukav got everyone to quiet down and said, "I am in favor of allowing Hayes this leave of absence."   
The other council members looked at each other and thought it over for a moment. Hayes was their most valuable member and they knew it, Zukav was second most valuable because he was in charge of the very important European sector. It would be unwise to cross both men.   
Herbert threw up his hands in resignation, "Alright, but make sure you get back here as soon as you can."   


After the meeting, as Hayes was heading back to his quarters, Zukav caught up with him and the two walked down the hall.   
"Thank you for your help Anton," said Hayes distractedly.   
"It's quite alright Nick. I know what it is like to have children, and to lose them too," replied Zukav quietly, remember his own son that had been killed in action over six months ago.   
Hayes nodded and remained silent.   
"Your daughter is bright and tough, anyone can see that. I'm sure she'll make it through Nick," said Zukav as they neared his quarters.   
"Thank you Anton."   
Zukav punched his command code into the console and his door swished open. Before entering he shook Hayes hand and said confidently, "Godspeed to you and Lisa."   
Hayes nodded his thanks and turned around slowly and headed to his quarters. On his way there he thought about what Zukav had said and wondered if maybe he should've gone the cowardly route, at least Lisa wouldn't be hurt right now. No. She wanted to carry on the family's military dynasty, and ever since she had joined up she had done the family name proud. She wasn't one to run away and hide from danger, he knew that when she applied for openings on the SDF-1. He hated the idea of her being on an alien ship, engaging in combat with an alien enemy, and his fears were verified when the SDF-1 was under constant barrage by the Zentraedi and when Lisa was taken as a POW. He thought maybe that incident might have rattled her into consider leaving the SDF-1, but it didn't, and although he continued to fear for her, he had to admit that he felt very proud of her.   
So what was he going to do now? Was he going to bring her back home where he could send her to any medical specialist she needed? Or was he going to let her stay on the SDF-1, where she felt she belonged.   
Nicholas Hayes sighed and decided not to worry about those questions for the moment, the most immediate thing that needed to be done was to make it up to the SDF-1 and be with her. He also wondered what this Rick Hunter guy was like, were he and Lisa dating? Was he Lisa's boyfriend? Surely after all they had been through together, the POW incident, the Mars Base rescue, surely they had become close. Hayes thought about it some more and realized that he already liked Rick Hunter. The fact that he had saved Lisa's life a couple of times made Hayes believe that Rick was a good, brave soldier, and he felt comforted to know that Lisa had someone to look out for her when he himself couldn't. Who knows, maybe Hunter might even become a son-in-law someday... Hayes shrugged and scolded himself for thinking too far in advance and so he shelved his thoughts and hurried to his quarters to get prepared for the morning flight to the SDF-1.   
  
  
  


* * * * * * * 

Day 4 

"Hey there Rick," said Roy cautiously as he entered the locker room.   
"Hi Roy," Rick said weakly.   
"So...are you feeling ok about the flight? If you have second thoughts then just go ahead and let me know and I can cover for you," offered Roy.   
Rick shook his head, "No, I'm fine Roy, thanks. I just...I don't know what I'm going to say when I meet Admiral Hayes... 'Oh geez, by the way, I'm sorry I am the reason for your daughter being seriously injured' ?"   
Roy had expected this and decided to be more harsher in his reply this time, in the hopes that he could get Rick to quit his guilt-trip, so he pushed Rick up against the locker and stated, "Now enough of this bull---t! I don't want to hear you say that again. You had no control over what happened and didn't cause what happened either. Now I don't want to hear you go on and on with this crap anymore. Just get over it and concentrate on helping Lisa now instead of whining over the past!"   
Rick cowered a bit, he knew it was always a bad thing to make Roy mad.   
Roy let go of his grip on Rick's shirt and then calmly added, "You better hurry up, you're suppose to depart in 10 minutes."   
Rick finished his equipment check then followed Roy out to the hanger. Before climbing into his plane, Rick looked back at Roy and asked, "Could you...could you tell Lisa that I'm going to pick up her father. I stopped by the hospital early this morning and asked how she was doing but I didn't have the heart to go in and see her. Could you tell her I'm sorry that I didn't come and see her this morning, but when I get back, I'll come and see her."   
Roy said he would and as he watched Rick close the canopy he couldn't help but feel helpless and sad. Rick talked as if Lisa were wide awake and would hear and understand everything Rick asked him to tell Lisa, but the fact was that Jean had reported another 5 percent decrease in neurological activity this morning. They didn't tell Rick, because they didn't want to upset him before his flight and because they just didn't have the heart to tell him the latest news.   


"How are you doing out there Rick?" asked Sammie, who was assisting as well as training for flight ops.   
"I'm doing ok, I'm surprised it's so clear out here," replied Rick, wondering why there was no enemy movement.   
"Yeah, well, shhhhh, don't knock on wood ok?" answered Sammie, looking over her shoulder to check on a radar monitor.   
Rick managed to crack a smile and said, "From the looks of things, I should be at Alaska Base in about two hours. I'll sign off for now and contact you if anything comes up."   
"Sure thing, talk to you later," replied Sammie.   


"Lieutenant Hunter, this is Alaska Base, you are cleared to land on runway 17, over," said a male flight controller.   
"Roger, prepared to land on runway 17, ETA 2 minutes, Hunter out," replied Rick, trying to sound calm. He was feeling the butterflies in his stomach and wondering if maybe he should've taken Roy up on his offer to be the one pickup Admiral Hayes. '_What do I do? Tell him now? Or later?_' wondered Rick. '_Maybe everyone is right, maybe it's not entirely my fault..._'   
Rick taxied his plane until it finally came to a halt and then steered it towards the waiting hanger, stopping just outside the entrance. He took several deep breaths to calm his nerves, then did his post-flight instrument check and then disembarked from his VT.   
As he stepped off the final rung of the ladder, he turned around and saw a tall man, whom he instantly assumed was Lisa's father, the man bearing a very strong resemblance to Lisa.   
Rick saluted and said clearly, "Lieutenant Richard Hunter reporting to pilot Admiral Hayes back to the SDF-1, sir!"   
Hayes returned Rick's salute and said, "At ease Lieutenant. Thank you for agreeing to be my pilot for this trip."   
"It is my privilege and honor sir, thank you for requesting me," replied Rick, a little bit surprised at Hayes' lack of stuffiness.   
Admiral Hayes nodded then motioned to several people in the hanger who then brought out a couple of trunks and began to load them into the cargo compartment of Rick's plane.   
Admiral Hayes excused himself to give parting instructions to some of is aides and as Hayes was conversing with his officers, Rick waited near the ladder of his plane and observed.   
From the looks of things, Rick estimated Admiral Hayes to be in his early fifties, maybe even very late forties. He had a full head of hair, the color being the same as Lisa's. He seemed to be around six feet tall and solidly built, but not overweight by any means and seemingly in good physical shape, save for what Rick thought was the slightest trace of a limp.   
After Admiral Hayes had finished his conversations and his luggage was loaded up, he climbed into the co-pilot seat and fastened the various safety harnesses, then waited for Rick.   
"Is everything alright back there Admiral?" asked Rick as he checked the instruments.   
"Yes Lieutenant, everything is fine," replied Hayes as he looked out the window.   
"If you need anything, just let me know," answered Rick, as he turned the plane towards the runway for takeoff.   


The two made it back out into space without any incident. Rick had asked Admiral Hayes about Alaska Base and Hayes had obliged Rick by telling him all about the base and hoping that he didn't bore him with too many details.   
Admiral Hayes was feeling a bit tired, having suffered from insomnia the entire night before, so he told Rick he would take a short nap, since they still had aways to go before landing on the SDF-1. Rick was relieved at the suggestion, not so much because he found Admiral Hayes unpleasant, on the contrary, he thought he was a very interesting person, but rather because Rick knew they were both avoiding the subject of Lisa. And when they finally did address that topic, it would be difficult for both of them.   
Though he was exhausted, Admiral Hayes couldn't fall asleep, so he decided to rest his eyes and listened to the intermittent communications Rick had with the bridge. He noticed that Rick didn't chit-chat much with the bridge crew, and was actually very quiet and downcast, reminding him a bit of Lisa. He wondered how old Rick was, he thought for sure Lisa was older than Rick but that didn't concern him very much. He thought that Lisa and Rick made a nice couple, and secretly hoped that were dating. '_Lisa needs a good, caring, protective man in her life_,' Admiral Hayes thought to himself, and as far as he was concerned, Lieutenant Rick Hunter fit the bill.   
  


to be continued......... 

------------------------------ 

I'm still also working on my To the Stars chapter 21, that is only about 15% complete because I've been quite busy lately :(   


and on that note...in fact, I need MORE Rick and Lisa stuff to read!! Please people!! Hmm...I wonder if I threatened to only update my stories only every other month if that will spur more people to write Rick & Lisa stories.... probably not, but it's worth a try! Mwahahahahahaha! Me so bad :) Who? Me kidding?? Nope! I'm serious! :)   


PLEASE WRITE YOUR RICK-LISA STORIES OR UPDATE THE ONES YOU ALREADY HAVE ON HERE! :)   



	7. Part 6

Robotech Macross: What If...?: "On My Way to You"   
Part 6

  
  


Day 4 continued...   


As Rick rolled into the loading bay, Captain Gloval and Sammie were already there waiting for him and his important passenger.   
Admiral Hayes finished climbing down from the ladder and Gloval and Sammie snapped their salutes. Hayes saluted back then Gloval said, "Welcome aboard, I had hoped that the next time you visited us, it would have been under better circumstances."   
Admiral Hayes nodded and watched as the flight crew unloaded his luggage. He didn't know what to say or feel at the moment, he didn't blame Gloval for Lisa being in danger, but he just couldn't get over the constant frustration he felt since the SDF-1 moved into harms way the day the Zentraedi attacked. Hayes wanted to immediatly remove Lisa from the ship, but Gloval had been adamant about not letting go of his First Officer, and the ensuing events over the many months hadn't eased Hayes' worry. '_This is the assignment she wanted, and she was an integral part to the SDF-1's survival..._'   
"Sir, I shall show you to your room now," said Sammie meekly, suddenly shy in front of such an important man.   
"Thank you Sammie," replied Hayes and followed her down the hall. He had met Sammie once before, but Lisa had mentioned her a few times, as well as the other bridge crewmembers, so Hayes had somewhat an idea of what they were like. 

Admiral Hayes changed into his uniform then Sammie escorted him to the hospital. He had insisted that that be the first thing he do when he arrived on the SDF-1. First and foremost, he was here to see his daughter, he wasn not here on business, so all other work-related issues would have to take a backseat for the time being.   
When they arrived at the hospital, Wells greeted them in the waiting room of the ICU, then told Sammie she could be excused and that Wells himself would take care of everything else. Sammie nodded and told Admiral Hayes that if he needed anything that he could phone her and when he was ready to leave, she would escort him back to his quarters.   
Hayes and Wells stood in the waiting room in silence for a few moments, then Wells held out his hand and Hayes shook it as Wells said, "Nice to see you again Nick, it's been awhile. I wish this meeting were under better circumstances." Hayes nodded. He was getting sick and tired of hearing that, already he had heard it at least half a dozen times from various people he met on the way to the hospital, 'Nice to see you again Admiral, too bad it's under bad circumstances, as in, your daughter being near death.'   
Wells decided to not waste anymore time and said quietly, "Well, let me show you to Lisa's room."   
Hayes followed, his gait still upright and distinguished, but his expression on his face betraying the fear and apprehension that was brewing inside him.   
Wells led Hayes to the door of Lisa's room and said, "I'll be at the nurses station if you need me," then turned the door handle and opened the door just a crack and then left.   
Nicholas Hayes stared at the door handle, he was afraid to touch it, afraid to open the door and possibly find his daughter a mere shell of what she used to be, or worse, to find her beyond hope or help.   
From his vantage point near the door to the ICU unit, Rick could see that Admiral Hayes was having trouble. Rick had followed Sammie and Admiral Hayes to the hospital but had kept his distance. He wanted to talk to Admiral Hayes, to try and explain what happened, but he would wait until the Admiral got a chance to visit with Lisa first. Rick was afraid of what Hayes might think, say, or do to him, but he had to tell him what happened, because his conscious would eat at him if he didn't.   
'_Don't be a coward Hayes, your little girl needs you now._' Hayes' inner voice berated himself for hesitating, so he took a deep breath, then slowly pushed the door open and heard the whirring and beeping of the various medical machinery that surrounded Lisa.   
He closed the door behind him then walked slowly towards her bed, afraid to look at her, but when he did look down, he could not help but feel a bit relieved. Aside from a few scratches and bruises, Lisa looked the same as when he last saw her.   
Hayes sat down on the chair and pulled it closer to the edge of Lisa's bed and gently took he hand. He couldn't remember the last time he had held her hand, but he knew it was at least two years ago, maybe right before the SDF-1 had departed on it's maiden voyage.   
Hayes realized that Lisa's hand was somewhat cold and it brought back flashbacks of the times he'd sit with his wife, her hand being a bit colder than Lisa's was right now. He stood up quickly, his hand still grasping Lisa's. His heart was pounding and he took a few deep breaths and forced himself to try and calm down. He had already lost his wife, he sure as hell wasn't going to lose Lisa as well.   
He sat down again and calmed himself down before saying, "Lisa...it's me...dad." He felt the knot form in his throat. Lisa hadn't called him 'dad' since she was 14 years old. It has always been the very formal term 'father', and most recently it wasn't even 'father,' it was 'Admiral.' Hayes shuddered, a pit forming in his stomach and a cold chill running through him as he made the realization that he and Lisa had grown so far apart.   
He cleared his throat and began again, "Lisa, it's me...dad. I came as soon as I heard what happened. Because, you know, nothing will keep me away from my little girl whenever she needs me."   
Hayes waited, but all he heard were the beeps and buzzes. He remembered the time when he visited Lisa in the hospital after she and Roy had been nearly shot down. She was unconscious then too, for about a week, and looked very much like she did now, but she pulled through then. '_And she can pull through now_,' Hayes thought to himself. 

Lisa felt someone holding her hand, but she couldn't think of who it could be. She also heard someone talking to her but she couldn't make out what they were saying or who it was that was speaking. Whoever it was, she felt comforted to know someone was there with her. She was feeling much colder than she had been before, and she had resigned herself to it. 

"You know, while I was walking up here, I was thinking about the time when you were 12 years old and I tried to teach you how to drive and we ended up sinking the car. That was something, Lisa do you remember?" asked Admiral Hayes. 

'_Lisa, do you remember?_' Lisa knew that she knew that voice, it sounded so familiar, but something was different about it somehow.   


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ _Flashback_ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

"Dad! You're home early!" shouted an overjoyed Lisa as she ran down the stairs and jumped into her father's waiting arms.   
"Well, I did promise you that I'd try and make it home earlier didn't I?" said Nick Hayes with a smile as he put Lisa back down.   
"But you were only gone for 2 hours!" said a confused Lisa.   
"Did you want me to go back to work and come back later?" teased Hayes, and he started walking back to his car.   
Lisa tugged his arm and rolled her eyes, "Daaaaaaad!"   
Hayes laughed and held his daughters hand as they headed into the house. After eating lunch, the father and daughter went to the garage to figure out which car would be least missed if it happened to end up as a pile of junk. Hayes decided to pick an Audi sedan, figuring that even though he would miss it, it would be a good car for Lisa to train on.   
"Dad, are you sure you want to use this car?" asked an apprehensive Lisa as they drove towards the small lake.   
"It's fine honey, don't worry about it," answered Hayes.   
"Ok, but don't say I told you so," retorted Lisa.   
Hayes chuckled and mussed up Lisa's hair, eliciting a light complaint from her, "Dad!"   
Hayes laughed again then pulled the car near the grand oak tree and got out and waited. When he saw Lisa hesitate he smirked and said, "What's the matter, I thought you couldn't wait to drive?"   
Lisa, never one to back down from a challenge, quickly unbuckled her seat belt and got out of the car and came around to the driver's side and buckled herself in and started up the car and replied, "Ok mister, the taxi driver is here now, get in or you'll be left on the road eating my dust."   
Hayes rolled his eyes and smiled and got into the passenger seat and buckled himself in saying, "I wish I had put an extra seatbelt on this seat."   
Lisa glared at him but he could see a smile trying to crack through the fake glare and in a few moments they were both laughing.   
"Ok Lisa, take us back to the road," said Hayes as he looked around and tried to figure out how Lisa would carry out the instruction. "Do you want me to go over it step-by-step with you?" he asked.   
"No I think I will be ok," replied Lisa, hands clamped tightly onto the steering wheel.   
Hayes shrugged and waited. Lisa looked around and tried to figure out her course of action. She could either, head forward and make a left turn, although that would have her turning very close to the bank of the lake, or, she could back up around the tree and then head forward onto the road. She decided it was safer to back up so she put the gear in reverse and stepped on the gas pedal. 

**BANG!!!**   
"Oh s--t!" moaned Lisa as she looked in her rear view mirror and saw nothing but a large tree trunk. She looked over at her father with a guilty expression and saw that he was laughing.   
"Dad! Why are you laughing?! Aren't you mad I wrecked your car?" asked a perplexed Lisa.   
Still laughing, Hayes shook his head and said, "Don't worry about it...that's a strong bumper back there. I think you are pointing in the direction that you want to go in now, so put it in drive and head out onto the road."   
"Roger!" replied Lisa. 

They managed to drive around the estate several times without any further mishap. Hayes would've taken the opportunity to tell Lisa some more of his Navy hijinks stories but he wanted her to be able to concentrate, so he kept quiet and only spoke to give her instructions every now and then.   
"Well, I think that went pretty well, despite the very start, I think you did pretty good," observed Hayes.   
Lisa was proud of herself, not only did it make her feel good to be halfway on the way to becoming a good driver, even if she were only 12 years old, but she always sought to gain her father's approval and was pleased with his comments.   
"Your mother will probably be wanting you to help her with dinner, so let's call it a day and head back home," said Hayes.   
Lisa nodded. They were at the grand oak tree again and Lisa decided that she wouldn't try backing up, this time she'd go for the forward u-turn. She stepped on the gas pedal and started to make the turn but she didn't calculate the angle correctly and the front right tire ended up going into the water, she panicked and instead of stepping on the brake, stepped on the gas and the car plowed into the water.   
"Dad!!" screamed Lisa in a panic.   
"Don't panic! Quick, unbuckle your seat belt and climb out the window," ordered Hayes.   
Hayes undid his seat belt and watched as Lisa's nervous hands fumbled with her own seatbelt. The water was rushing in the car quickly and Hayes wasted no time in helping Lisa out of her seatbelt. Lisa tried to open her window some more but the electronic mechanism had already malfunctioned and so Hayes pulled Lisa towards his window, which was rolled down completely.   
They quickly got out of the car and waded over to the bank and watched as the car sank slowly. Lisa was crying and clinging to her father.   
"Don't worry Lisa, you'll be alright. That must've been pretty scary for you. Just take a few deep breaths and you'll feel better," said Hayes, trying to calm his daughter.   
"N-no...it's not that," said Lisa in between sobs.   
"What is it then honey?" asked Hayes.   
"I...I...I ruined your car..." said Lisa, then began to cry again.   
Hayes couldn't help but chuckle, "Lisa, is that what you're so upset about?"   
Lisa nodded her head and Hayes shook his head in disbelief.   
"Lisa, dear. Don't worry about my car, the important thing is that we are safe and unhurt. A car can be replaced, but you can't," said Hayes, trying to get Lisa to see the wisdom of it.   
"You're not mad?... that was one of your favorite cars..." said Lisa as she looked up at her father.   
"No. Like I said, I can find another car, it can be replaced, but you can't. The important thing is that you got out of there safely."   
"Dad, were you scared?" asked Lisa.   
"Yes, I was."   
"But you were so calm and didn't panic," replied Lisa, amazed at her father's cool-headedness.   
"I have had training for situations like this Lisa, but that doesn't mean I wasn't scared. And since you were with me, I was more terrified than if I were by myself or with other people."   
"Why daddy?"   
"Well Lisa, because you and your mother are the most important people in my life, and if anything ever happened to you, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself."   
"I see..." said Lisa quietly. "I wasn't too afraid, because I was with you, and I knew you'd take care of me and wouldn't let anything happen to me."   
Hayes smiled as he saw the confidence on his daughter's face. He knew he would give his life to protect her.   
"Well young lady, now we have to figure out how to explain this all to your mother.." mused Hayes.   
Lisa squeezed his hand and said with a wink, "Don't worry daddy, I think I know what we can tell her."   
Hayes shrugged, "Alright, I'll leave the explaining up to you then."   
As Lisa and her father walked back to the house, Lisa said, "Dad, when I get a job and make some money then I'll buy you another Audi, same model, same color, but you'll have to wait a few years for that, because you know, I'm only twelve years old right now."   
Hayes laughed and said, "Alright Lisa, I'll wait patiently." 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ _End Flashback_ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

'_Wait, I know that voice now....Father! What is he doing here?_' wondered Lisa.   
Hayes looked at Lisa after he finished retelling the story. He put a gentle hand on her forehead and sighed. He leaned back in his chair and decided to close his eyes and rest for awhile before recounting more stories. 

It was now six o'clock in the evening and Admiral Hayes had been at Lisa's bedside for some five hours. Wells finally was able to convince him to go get something to eat. Hayes was walking down the corridor towards the cafeteria when he saw the entrance door for a small chapel and decided to enter.   
He entered quietly and noticed someone sitting in the front pew, apparantly unaware of his presence. Hayes was about to turn around and leave when he thought the person was Rick, so he quietly walked to the front pew to make sure.   
Rick felt the presence of someone off to his right and looked up and saw Admiral Hayes peering down at him.   
"I'm sorry, I hope I wasn't interrupting anything," said Hayes.   
Rick shook his head, "No sir. I was just sitting here, thinking...praying."   
Rick moved down the pew and told Admiral Hayes that he could sit down if he wanted to. Hayes took a seat and remained quiet for awhile.   
"Lieutenant, I'd like to thank you for saving my daughter on Mars Base, as well as the POW incident, and this latest attack...I'm forever grateful to you," said Hayes quietly.   
Rick felt the knot stick in his throat and he croaked out, "I'm no hero Admiral, and the fact of the matter is, if it weren't for me, Lisa probably wouldn't be this injured right now."   
Admiral Hayes gave Rick a quizzical look and waited for him to elaborate. After Rick finished telling him what happened, Hayes stared straight ahead and tried to sort things out. He heard Rick sniffle and looked over to see Rick wiping his eyes.   
"Lieutenant. I don't blame you for what happened, and you shouldn't feel responsible either. Lisa was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and even if you hadn't challenged her on the manual, she coudl've gone to the front of the bridge for a different reason. You had no way of knowing the bridge was going to be fired upon, so please stop blaming yourself for the whole thing, it does no one any good." Hayes looked at Rick and hoped that he knew he was being absolutely sincere and that what he said was the truth.   
Rick took a deep breath then continued, "But...I'm not the person you think I am. Lisa and I fight constantly and mostly it's because of my big mouth and arrogance. She's been a good friend to me, but I haven't been there for her, I've been so wrapped up with myself and my problems that I haven't stopped to be there for her."   
"How old are you Lieutenant?" asked Hayes.   
"I'm twenty-one sir," replied Rick.   
"Well Lieutenant, that's not quite so unexpected. You're younger than Lisa, and just young in general, you seem quite mature, but have more maturing to go through, you shouldn't beat yourself up over it, all of us guys go through that stage," offered Hayes, but then he added, "That's not to say that I am justifying how you've treated my daughter."   
"I know sir, I certainly am no Karl Riber," muttered Rick.   
Admiral Hayes was surprised to hear the name and figured that Lisa and he must've talked about Riber, especially since he saved her from Mars Base. Hayes looked at Rick and said, "No, Lieutenant, you're no Karl Riber, the way I see it, you're better than Karl Riber."   
Rick nearly jumped in his seat and asked, "What?"   
Hayes reclined a bit, "Yes, I did mean what I just said. Listen, Lieutenant, I don't know what you've heard about Karl Riber, but I can tell you that he was a good man, but, and it's a very serious but. Karl Riber got engaged to Lisa, then left her to go run and hide on Mars and get away from Earth because _he_ couldn't adjust to the current situation on Earth. He didn't think of how lonely Lisa would be without him, he thought of his own insecurities first before hers. He promised to marry her but then ran away? How long would Lisa have to wait to see him again? And he waited for her to come up to Mars with him. Why should she have had to go chase after him, he was suppose to be by her side, if he really loved her. Am I angry at him, you bet I am. Because of him, Lisa changed _completely_. Completely. She went from the fun-loving, charming young lady to someone who seemed a decade older than she really was, someone who became cold, isolated, joyless, and bitter. Do you know what it's like to see someone go through such an instant and complete transformation?? I tell you Lieutenant, it's hell."   
Rick thought about it for awhile and he couldn't help but feel mad at Riber as well. As he thought about it some more, he wondered what it would've been like to know Lisa when she was younger, and happier. Rick saw flashes of the fun-loving, charming traits that her father described, several times when he and Lisa would be getting along well. He wondered what Lisa was like when she used to be that way all the time.   
"For what it's worth, Admiral, I've seen the fun-loving, charming side of Lisa. It's not completely gone, and I am sure it will return one day. When we aren't arguing, we get along pretty well actually. You might even say we are good friends," said Rick quietly.   
Admiral Hayes was pleased to hear this but didn't want to make Rick uncomfortable by getting too excited over it, so he replied, "I'm glad to hear that Lieutenant. I don't have much contact with Lisa and I worry about her constantly, not just her physical safety but her emotionaly well-being as well, so it pleases and relieves me to hear that, thank you."   
Rick nodded his head and sat quietly, not quite sure what else to say.   
"It's been a long day Lieutenant, why don't we go get something to eat," said Hayes as he stood up.   
Rick wasn't feeling very hungry, but didn't want to refuse the Admiral so he shook his head and got up and then the two men went to the cafeteria. They sat there for an hour as Admiral Hayes told Rick stories about Lisa. In that hour alone, Rick got a good insight into the side of Lisa he didn't know, the fun-loving, mischievious, vivacious side. He berated himself for not taking the time or the effort to get to know her better and sadly wondered if he ever would get the chance.   
As the two men headed back to the hospital, Rick said quietly, "Sir, you don't mind if I go see Lisa right now? It won't be long."   
Hayes waved his hand, "Of course you can see her, take as much time as you need, I'm sure she would be pleased to know you are there."   
Rick's eyes widened a bit, "Do you really think so?"   
Hayes shrugged, "From what you've described to me so far about your relationship with her, I think she would be."   
Hayes thought that Rick actually looked like he had perked up at the comment and watched as Rick walked into Lisa's room with a more purposeful stride.   
Hayes walked up to the window and carefully peeked into the room.   
Rick sat down at Lisa's bedside and took her hand again, "Hi....Lisa, it's me Rick again. I came back to see you, just like Roy said I would. I brought your father up here. I followed every single flight instruction exactly, that probably would make you laugh, since when do I ever follow all my instructions. But I know how important your father is and I didn't want to do anything at all to endanger him...just like I wouldn't do anything to endanger you. I know I've said it before, but I can't say it enough. I'm sorry for you being in here..."   
  
'_Rick? Is that Rick? What's he doing here? And what is he talking about?_' wondered Lisa, finally able to put the voice to a face.   
  
"Well, I have to be going now, your father is waiting to see you. I'll stop by tommorrow again to see how you're doing." Rick squeezed Lisa's hand and then kissed her on the forehead and left the room quietly. 

'_Did Rick actually kiss me just now? Wait, Rick, come back. Stay with me..._' 

"Admiral sir, good evening. Thank you for dinner," Rick said as he saluted.   
"You don't have to leave so soon Lieutenant," replied Hayes, who was now joined by Captain Gloval.   
"It's alright sir, I'm very tired. I think I'm going to head straight to bed," answered Rick.   
Hayes nodded and Rick saluted again then left.   
After Gloval had some time to visit with Lisa, Hayes joined him in Lisa's room. Hayes let Gloval keep the chair and walked over to the window and sighed loudly.   
"Nick, she will make it through," said Gloval.   
"I know she will Henry, it's not that I'm worried about, it's about what comes after. I want to let you know that I'm considering taking her back to Earth with me, when she's strong enough to be moved, but..."   
"But?" asked Gloval, wanting Hayes to elaborate.   
"But...I'm starting to think that maybe that's not such a good idea. If I took her away from her friends, well, she would probably hate me more now than she already does," answered Hayes.   
"Nick, she doesn't hate you," retorted Gloval.   
"Yes, she does. She won't talk to me. She won't give me a chance to explain why I make the decisions I do. Remember when you two came down to the base? I wanted to explain but she left. Do you know what it's like to live with the fact that your child hates you? It's very painful Henry," said Hayes as he stared out the window.   
"Nick..." said Gloval.   
"I believe that Lisa considers you more of a father than me," said Hayes as he shook his head slowly. He looked over at Gloval and asked in a pained voice, "Where did I go wrong Henry? What did I do that was so bad that my daughter hates me for?"   
"Nicholas..." 

Lisa didn't pay attention to what Gloval replied, she was too busy trying to process her father's words. She didn't hate him did she? Sure, she was mad at him for several things but were they really all his fault? She remembered how hurt he sounded as her father spoke to Gloval. She had no idea she had caused him so much pain. She wanted to talk, to move, do something, but nothing seemed to respond. It was as if only her thinking ability was working. She couldn't move anything or smell anything or feel anything or see anything but she could hear. She wanted to cry too but even that didn't seem to be able to happen. '_Dear God, please don't let me live the rest of my life like this..._,' Lisa prayed, hoping that God could hear her. 

"Well, I guess I should head back to my room now," said Hayes, "Lisa dear, I'll be back early in the morning." He kissed her on the cheek and left the room. 

'_No, father come back, stay with me...I...I don't hate you..._' thought Lisa, but her father had already left the room. She heard beepings and whirrings and couldn't figure out what they were or where they were coming from.   


"Ah, Jean, just about ready to call it a night huh?" said Wells as he packed his backpack.   
"Yes sir, but I thought I'd show you this sir, we might all be able to sleep a little bit better because of it," replied Jean, with a slight smile on her face.   
Wells wasn't sure what she was talking about and took the report Jean held out to him, but she saved him the trouble of reading it and said, "I've been monitoring Lisa's brain activity since her father arrived and just now before he left I found that she regained the 5% activity she had lost this morning."   
Wells' eyes went wide, "That's impossible."   
Jean smiled, "Yes, that's what I said too, but I double checked, and had the neurologist on-call check it as well and he confirms it."   
Wells shook Jean by the shoulders and said, "This is good news!"   
Jean nodded, "Yes, it is. Let's hope this trend continues. I think the combination of Rick and Lisa's father visting her is part of the reason."   
"Indeed," replied Wells, as he held a finger to his chin, in deep thought. "Jean, let's have another neuro consult tommorrow."   
"Yes sir," Jean answered and left the room with a smile on her face.   
After she left, Wells went back to his desk and picked up the picture of his wife and daughter and whispered, "Please girls, help me out on this one. You have done it before, I know you can do it again." He put down the picture, picked up his backpack and headed to the chapel for a few minutes before heading home. 

to be continued........ 

------------------------------- 

This is almost almost finished, I am in quite a hurry to get this done before next week because I have a new work assignment that will take up a lot of my time. I think I will write one more chapter and that is it because I just won't have the time to write out a long long drawn out story.   


aikiweezie: don't worry, this story will have a happy ending. :)   
  



	8. Part 7 final chapter

Robotech Macross: What If...?: "On My Way to You"   
Part 7

  


Day 5 through Day 13 

Over a week passed and although Lisa had not yet regained consciousness, her condition had steadily improved.   
Repairs on the bridge were completed, thanks in part to the 24/7 repair work schedule carried out so dilegently and efficiently by the work crews.   
Vanessa was released from the hospital and Claudia would soon be released and Kim was at the hospital during the day hours in order to go through her physical therapy.   
Admiral Hayes and Rick had taken turns staying with Lisa throughout the days and both men grew to know each other better and respect each other.   
Not only that, but Rick had learned a lot about Lisa from Admiral Hayes and day by day Rick found himself intrigued and eager to get to know Lisa better. He went to see her everyday and unknown to him, Lisa could hear and understand every word he said to her.   
Admiral Hayes also had many heart-to-heart talks with the unconscious, but all-hearing Lisa, and would re-tell stories of when Lisa was younger and when they would get along well. Admiral Hayes made it a point to apologize to Lisa everday and beg her to give him a chance to be part of her life. Also unknown to Admiral Hayes, Lisa heard every conversation of his as well.   


Day 14   


Rick sipped at his coffee absently. He had woken up early and was unable to go back to sleep so he got dressed for duty and made himself a pot of coffee and parked himself in front of his computer and stared at the photos of Lisa that adorned his desktop wallpaper/background.   
He sighed and wondered if Lisa would ever wake up. The last two weeks had been a roller-coaster ride, and if there was one single good thing to come out of it, it was that he had learned so much and realized how much more maturing he needed to do.   
He learned that he was a very selfish and blind person and that he should learn to not think about himself so much and stay wrapped up in his own problems, because that was the root cause of his blindness.   
After many truth-telling talks with Roy, and even one or two with Claudia, Rick was finally able to realize and admit that he had deep feelings for Lisa that were not born out of guilt for nearly causing her death, but rather from the feelings that had started growing ever since he first met her.   
What he also learned over the past week and a half, since Admiral Hayes arrived, was he had actually found himself falling for the side of Lisa that he didn't know and was only brought to light by the stories Admiral Hayes told him. Coupled with the feelings he already had for the side of Lisa he had already gotten to know, he had a hard time trying to deny that he was falling in love with her and that his thoughts, once consumed by mostly Minmei, were now thoroughly and solely of Lisa.   


  


_You don't remember me, but I remember you._   
_I lie awake and try so hard not to think of you._   
_But who can decide what they dream?_   
_And dream I do..._

_Chorus:_   
_I believe in you._   
_I'll give up everything just to find you._   
_I have to be with you, to live, to breathe..._   
_You're taking over me._

_Have you forgotten all I know and all we have._   
_You saw me mourning my love for you and touched my hand._   
_I knew you loved me then._

_Repeat chorus_

_I look in the mirror and see your face, if I look deep enough._   
_So many things inside that are just like_   
_You are taking over..._   
(1) 

  


Rick put his head down on his desk, his thoughts consumed by images of Lisa, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get them to leave his mind. '_Is this what it's like to be in love? Real love?_' he wondered to himself, as he lifted his head and stared at her pictures.   
  
  
  


* * * * * * * 

"It's good to see you up and about again Claudia," said Admiral Hayes warmly as he helped Claudia sit down in the chair next to Lisa's bed.   
"You know me Admiral, they can't keep a good woman down," replied Claudia.   
Hayes chuckled and left the room so Claudia could spend some time alone with Lisa. After about half an hour, Hayes returned to the room and asked Claudia, "Can I ask you about...Lieutenant Hunter?"   
Claudia expected the question and was surprised it hadn't come sooner. "I'll do my best to be helpful, what did you want to ask about?"   
"Well...I didn't want to ask him directly, I mean, not to scare him or make him think I was putting any type of pressure on him...I was just curious, considering the way he talks about Lisa and the situations he's described between him and Lisa, I was just wondering...is there something between them? Something maybe that either one or the other doesn't realize or is willing to admit?" asked Hayes.   
Claudia and Roy had been observing and discussing Rick these past couple weeks as well and the things he said and did more than likely confirmed Hayes' hypothesis.   
Claudia wanted to word things correctly, just incase Lisa was able to hear everything going on, "Well Nick, I don't know if you know but Rick has been involved with the star Minmei."   
"Yes, I know, he's told me about her, several times," replied Hayes.   
Claudia frowned, "He tells _everyone_ about his problems with Minmei."   
"So I've noticed," remarked Hayes, "but I'm thinking that maybe he's starting to have his doubts about her now. He's mentioned it to me at least twice."   
Claudia arched her eyebrows in surprise, "Oh really? He's mentioned the same thing to Roy too."   
"Well, I'll come right out and say it, I think Rick and Lisa would make a good couple. Now, you know me, I didn't push too many men Lisa's way because I knew she'd reject them and get mad at me for trying to set her up with someone, especially after Riber died, but I really really like this Rick Hunter. He has some more maturing to do, and he is a bit younger than Lisa, but I think he has a good heart and is capable of taking good care of her and making her happy," ended Hayes as he looked at Lisa.   
Claudia smiled, "I'll tell you a little secret Nick, you're not the only one who thinks exactly the same thing. There are many people who feel the way you do, that Rick and Lisa are a perfect couple. I think the only thing standing in their way is Rick's fascination with Minmei. But don't worry, Roy's been working on that, just give him some time."   
Hayes nodded then looked at Lisa again and said quietly, "I just want her to be happy Claudia."   
Claudia gave Hayes an understanding look and replied, "I know you do."   
  
  
  


* * * * * * * 

"Lord Dolza, what are your orders," said Breetai as Dolza's image appeared on screen.   
"I take it Exedore is still visiting those micronians?" said Dolza as his eyes scanned Breetai's bridge.   
"He is, and he managed to speak to the Minister of Defense as well," remarked Breetai as he folded his arms to his chest.   
"Minister of Defense? On the SDF-1?" asked Dolza.   
"Yes, sir," replied Breetai.   
"Interesting, but of no importance, they all shall be destroyed anyways. Breetai, the fleet and I will be arriving shortly, to take care of these vermin once and for all!"   
"Sir?!" exclaimed Breetai.   
"Yes, that is right, we've decided it's time to get this over with. I have ordered Azonia to release Khyron. The fleet will arrive shortly, do not do anything until we get there, Dolza out."   
Breetai whirled around and shouted, "Quick, get me Exedore!" 

* * * * * * * 

Wells burst into Lisa's room and said, "Nick, Captain Gloval needs you right away. Something about the entire Zentraedi fleet arriving." As Wells finished his sentence, the Red Alert signals and sirens went on. Hayes got up out of his seat immediately, speaking into Lisa's ear, "I'll be back as soon as I can, don't be afraid." Then he and Wells left the room. 

"Lord Breetai, are you certain?" asked Hayes, arms folded.   
"Yes Minister, I am certain. When Dolza says he is coming, he means it," answered Breetai. 

"Admiral, priority one incoming for you sir," said Sammie.   
Hayes nodded and excused himself to go to another room to listen to the secured transmission.   
"Hayes, what is going on up there?! We need you back here this instant!" shouted Councilman Blaine.   
"Where is Edwards," retorted Hayes.   
"Here sir," replied the steely-eyed Edwards.   
"TR, get the Grand Cannon ready, Operation Maximum Impact," said Hayes somberly.   
"Sir? Maximum Impact?" said Edwards with disbelief.   
"I'm afraid so TR," replied Hayes.   
"Hayes! What the hell is going on, get down here now!" shouted Councilman Blaine again.   
"I'll try to make it down there as soon as possible,' said Hayes.   
"Sirs! Large defold activity detected near Venus!" Hayes heard someone shout in the council chamber.   
Hayes left the comm room and ran back to the SDF-1, Blaine and other council members shouting for him to come back. 

"It's happening...they're coming, all of them, there's so many of them, just like Lisa and her group reported when they escaped," said Gloval in a daze.   
Everyone on the bridge stared out the viewport and saw the flashes of defolding ships, everywhere, lighting up every corner of the space before them. Doomsday had come. 

"Henry, I need to get down to the surface as soon as possible," said Hayes as he turned to face Gloval.   
"I don't know if that's possible Nick, we'll be needing everything up here," replied Gloval.   
"Then give me something I can pilot myself, I have to get down there," said Hayes.   
Gloval sighed, he knew there was no way Hayes could make it down to the surface on his own. "Alright, I'll have Hunter fly you down, give us an hour to prepare."   
"Fine. That will give me a chance to say goodbye to Lisa before I leave," said Hayes as he hurried out the door.   


Hayes rushed to his quarters to pack a small suitcase and then changed into his flightsuit before heading over to the hospital. He dumped the suitcase down on the floor and remained standing as he took hold of Lisa's hand.   
"Lisa, I have to go back to Earth now. It appears you were right about the size of that Zentraedi fleet... I have to get back to Earth as soon as possible to help supervise our defenses and the Grand Cannon, but after this is all over with, I promise, I'll come back as soon as I can," said Hayes as he stared at his daughter's sleeping face. 

'_What? Back to Earth? Dolza is here? No! It can't be! We have no chance to defeat Dolza! No! I can't lose you now father! Dammit, move Lisa move! Speak, do something, stop him!_' shouted Lisa to herself, trying with all her might to do something to give her father an indication she was aware of his presence. 

Admiral Hayes bent down to kiss Lisa on the forehead and froze when he thought he felt the tickle of eye lashes under his chin. He looked down slowly and saw that Lisa was trying to open her eyes.   
"Come on honey! You can do it! Open them up, open them Lisa!" shouted Hayes, his heart pounding.   
Hayes waited for a few seconds but they felt like an eternity and finally Lisa managed to open her eyes. Hayes started to smother her cheeks with kisses and she could feel his tears on her face.   
"Thank God! Thank _God_! My little girl has woken up!" exclaimed Hayes as he stared at Lisa through tear-filled eyes.   
Hayes tried to calm himself and said, "Lisa, now, honey, if you can understand me, blink twice."   
Lisa immediately blinked twice and Hayes was beside himself with elation but tried to keep calm as he continued the questions.   
"Ok Lisa, now, if you know who I am, blink twice."   
Lisa blinked twice again.   
'_At least she still knows who I am..._' thought Hayes with relief.   
"Lisa, if you can understand everything I'm saying clearly, blink twice."   
Lisa blinked again and Hayes could only stare at her in amazement.   
"Lisa, if you can move, blink twice for yes, and once for 'no.'"   
Lisa blinked only once and the wind was taken out of Hayes' sails momentarily.   
"Ok, if you can see, blink twice for yes, and once for 'no.'"   
Lisa blinked twice and Hayes was more than relieved.   
All of a sudden, there was a bright flash of light from the window and both Hayes and Lisa shifted their eyes away from each other and over to the flash. They saw a huge cluster of bright lights twinkling, indicating a very large enemy group had defolded. Hayes, in his joy at seeing his daughter re-awaken, had momentarily forgotten about the predicament outside and now had to force himself to tell Lisa he had to leave.   
"Lisa dear, I'm so sorry. I have to get down there, they need me, but I promise I'll come back as soon as I can," said Hayes confidently.   
Hayes bent over to kiss Lisa's forehead again and this time, not only did he feel the tickle of her eyelashes, but he also heard a feeble, "No."   
Hayes looked down at Lisa and asked, "What did you say honey?"   
Hayes could see the fear and pleading in his daughter's eyes and it appeared she used every bit of her depleted reserve of strength to say, "Don't go...stay."   
Hayes swallowed the lump in his throat and said quietly, "I can't honey. The whole world is depending on me, I have to go down there."   
"No!" said Lisa again, sounding a little bit stronger this time. Suddenly the cardiac monitor started signalling an elevated heartrate and in a few seconds Dr. Wells rushed into the room and nearly fell over when he saw Lisa looking at him.   
"Nick?!" was all Wells could say.   
Hayes quickly walked over to Wells and said in a hushed voice, "She just woke up a few minutes ago! She can hear and see, but she can't move. She understands everything we say and she knows who I am. I think she is starting to get upset because I told her I had to leave... she made it through Jake! She made it through!"   
Wells, despite being elated for himself and his friend, looked at Lisa's cardiac monitor and replied quietly, "Isn't there any way you can stay? If she gets too upset because of you leaving she's liable to go into cardiac arrest."   
"Jake, don't you think I would stay here if I could, but I can't. Jake, I'm Minister of Defense for the entire planet, I have to go down there," replied Hayes.   
"I know, I know. Listen, get going and I'll think of something to tell Lisa. Maybe I'll tell her you were needed on the bridge. I'd rather have her hate me for lying to her than to see her go into cardiac arrest," said Wells with resignation.   
Hayes nodded and said, "Let me spare you from that," then he patted Wells on the shoulder an walked back to Lisa's bed.   
"Lisa honey, Captain Gloval needs me up on the bridge right now. Please try and calm down and I promise I'll be back as soon as the battle is over," said Hayes, smiling.   
Lisa looked confused as her eyes darted from her father to Dr. Wells to the view outside the window.   
Hoping to ease his daughter's distress, Hayes said, "There will be a lot of prep work to do before the battle, and it might be awhile before we can come and visit you again, but when we get back we'll all have a big celebration alright? All your friends will be there, including Rick. In fact, before I head to the bridge, I'm going to call Rick and tell him the news. You can bet that he'll run right over here."   
At the utterances of Rick's name, Lisa's state of confusion seemed to lessen a bit and she managed to say, "Rick?"   
Hayes smiled and nodded his head, "Why don't I call him now, and better yet, why don't we let you tell him the good news, hang on a second."   
Hayes took out his cellphone and stepped outside Lisa's door and called Rick.   
"Admiral sir, what can I do for you? Are you ready to depart?" asked Rick.   
"Not quite yet Lieutenant, now, I have someone who wants to speak to you, but make sure you do NOT, under any circumstances, make it known that we are going back to Earth? Do you understand Rick? Under NO circumstances are you to mention it," reiterated Hayes.   
"Yes sir, you have my word sir, who is it that wishes to speak to me?" asked Rick, a bit confused.   
"Hang on a moment Rick," said Hayes as he walked back into Lisa's room and towards her bed.   
"Hello? Admiral??" said Rick again, wondering who was suppose to be on the other line.   
"Rick?" said a weak voice.   
The voice was weak but Rick knew that voice so well. His heart started to pound and he actually felt very dizzy and his legs felt as if they were cemented to the floor.   
"Lisa?" he asked with a shaky voice, praying that it was really her and that it wasn't some kind of joke.   
Roy entered the locker room and saw the pale look on Rick's face as he held the phone to his ear. "Rick, what is it?" asked Roy, fearing the worst.   
"Rick," said Lisa again, this time a little bit stronger.   
Rick would've fallen flat on his back were it not for the lockers behind him. He bumped into them, causing a loud noise. His arm seemed to go limp and the cellphone fell out of his hand and onto the ground. He mumbled Lisa's name and then took off running.   
"What the...?! Rick! Wait!" shouted Roy as he picked up the cellphone and took off chasing after Rick, not bothering to check who was on the other end of the phone.   
Hayes, holding the phone to his daughter's ear, wondered what was going on. Lisa was able to read the question in his eyes and she replied, weakly still, "He's coming."   
Hayes let a smile curl on his lips as he said matter-of-factly, "Yes, I knew he would. He's a good man Lisa."   
Lisa tried to smile and managed a tiny one. She had heard the two men converse hours on end while they were visiting her and she already knew that they got along well. 

Rick had the taxi driver speed to the hospital and once inside, Rick nearly collilded with a few patients, doctors, and nurses, but he finally managed to make it to the ICU in one piece. As he hurried over to Lisa's room he saw Jean and Doctor Wells standing outside Lisa's room. When they saw him they both smiled broadly and Jean opened the door for Rick, saying teasingly, "What took you so long?"   
Rick entered the room cautiously and saw Admiral Hayes get up from his seat. The smile on his face even bigger than the ones on Jean's and Wells' faces.   
Hayes looked at Lisa then at Rick and announced, "Well then, I shall leave you two alone and will be waiting outside," then he kissed Lisa on the cheek and smoothed the hair over her left ear and turned to leave but Lisa managed to say, "Wait."   
Hayes bent down so Lisa didn't have to exert too much strength to speak at a higher volume and he heard her say, "Thank you father...dad."   
Hayes thought he would start crying his eyes out on the spot but he manged to clear his throat and smiled as he said, "No need to thank me dear. Everything I do, I do because I love you."   
A tear rolled down Lisa's cheek and she nodded her head, "I know, dad."   
Hayes cleared his throat again and nodded, then hurriedly left the room.   
Once outside, he let the tears come and just at that moment, Roy had walked up to Lisa's room. He froze when the saw Hayes and expected to hear the worst news.   
"Admiral? Nick?? What is it? Don't tell me it's bad news..." said Roy, the trepidation evident in his voice.   
Hayes wiped his eyes and smiled at Roy then shook him by the shoulders, "No, it's not bad news Roy, it's good news! The best news! Lisa woke up."   
Roy looked through the window and saw Rick standing near Lisa's bed.   
"It's true Roy, you had better hurry up and go tell Claudia," said Jean with a smile.   
Roy's mouth was open but he couldn't speak for several seconds, then he broke into a smile and turned around and headed out of the ICU to go tell Claudia the good news. 

All Rick could do was stare at Lisa. He could not believe his eyes. He never thought he would see Lisa's emerald gaze ever again.   
Lisa waited patiently. She knew that Rick needed some time to get over the shock. She also secretly hoped that he would be truthful about his feelings for her. She had heard him utter many truthful thoughts while she had been 'asleep' but she wondered if he would suddenly get cold feet and hide his feelings now that she was awake. The several times Rick had mentioned that he thought it was over between him and Minmei had fueled Lisa's hope that she and Rick could finally become closer, but she didn't want to get her hopes up just to have them dashed, so she remained cautiously skeptical.   
Rick finally realized that Lisa was waiting for him to say something and he finally sat down in the chair and, to Lisa's surprise, took her hand and held it gently. She used all her strength to grasp Rick's hand. The gesture helped Rick release all his emotions and he put his head against the bedrail and began to sob.   
He had spent day after day, hour after hour, waiting, hoping, and praying for this moment and now that it was finally upon him, he was overwhelmed. 

After Rick had calmed down, he lifted his head and his eyes met Lisa's. She smiled at him and Rick felt himself breaking into a smile as well.   
"I've missed you," Rick said softly and sincerely.   
Lisa smiled, still to weak to put together very long sentences.   
Rick smiled back and was about to continue when they heard the overhead page for Rick to call the bridge. 

"You say an emergency meeting in 10 minutes? What? Minmei there too? What for?" queried Rick as he spoke to Gloval's aide on the other end of the phone.   
The moment Lisa heard the name Minmei, she started to worry, and as a result, her heartrate increased slightly, causing the cardiac monitor to beep. Rick, alarmed at the noise, quickly said to the person on the other end of the line, "I'll be there as soon as I can," then hung up and looked at Lisa with a worried look.   
"Minmei, why?" Lisa said, with disappointment in her eyes.   
Rick's heart pounded, he knew why Lisa reacted to Minmei that way. Though they didn't say it explicitely, Roy and Claudia implied that Lisa had feelings for him but hid them because of his involvment with Minmei and the notion that Lisa thought she couldn't compete against Miss Macross for his affections. Rick knew that he was going to have to make up his mind sooner or later about which woman he wanted to be with and, through a long, difficult, and sometimes, very painful soul-searching, he realized that he had been pursuing the wrong woman, Minmei, all along, at the expense of the woman who truly cared about him, Lisa.   
The notion of he and Lisa becoming a couple scared him more often then not, but he felt that he should just try and take one day at a time and give it a shot.   
Rick looked down at the ground then back up at Lisa and said quietly, "Don't worry about Minmei. The important thing is that you are awake now and that we help you get back on your feet as quick as possible. I don't know what or how much you heard while you were unconscious, but I want to tell you that I'm sorry for _everything, _for me being such an a--hole and getting you nearly killed, for everything I've ever done to upset you and I promise I'll make it up to you."   
Lisa looked away from Rick for a moment then looked back at him and said, "Don't..."   
Rick could see she was having difficulty talking so he moved closer to her as she finished weakly but somewhat angrily, "Don't do it just because of your guilty conscious."   
"I'm not," replied Rick.   
Lisa looked at him and Rick could see the skepticism in her eyes.   
Rick ran a hand through his thick, wavy hair and then said, "You don't believe me... I guess I can't really blame you."   
Lisa turned away from him and said, "Go, they'll be waiting for you at the meeting, especially Minmei."   
Rick stood up and stared down at Lisa for a few moments then bent down and kissed her gently. When he stood back up he said quietly, "I did that because I wanted to, not because of a guilty conscious."   
Lisa was confused, did she really believe him?   
Rick turned to go and Lisa managed to call out his name loud enough so he could hear as he neared the door. Rick walked back over to Lisa and waited for her to speak.   
"Rick...please watch out for my father. You're taking him down to Alaska aren't you?" said Lisa weakly.   
Rick was told not to mention the trip and he stuttered and stammered some kind of explanation but Lisa saved him from having to explain, "He doesn't fool me, I always know when he's lying. Please, watch out for him."   
Rick nodded and remained tightlipped as he turned to go but Lisa called out his name and he waited to see what she had to say this time.   
The last sentences had seemed to zap all of Lisa's energy so Rick had to put his ear very close to Lisa to hear what she was trying to say.   
"Turn your head," he heard her say in a raspy voice.   
Rick obliged and when he turned his head he found himself nose to nose with Lisa. They locked eyes for a few seconds then Lisa managed to tilt her head and kiss Rick. After they broke, Lisa said with a stronger voice, "You better go now."   
Rick nodded and walked to the door, turned back and looked at Lisa one more time, then left.   
Lisa sighed and closed her eyes. '_Was I wrong to do that? At least, if he is going to go back to Minmei, at least I got my chance to kiss him one more time..._' mused Lisa sadly.   
  
  
  


* * * * * * * 

[ Authors note: What happens next as far as the battle preparations go...just insert most of what happened in Robotech episode 28, "Force of Arms" here. Exedore and Breetai agree to help Gloval, Minmei will be used to scare the rest of the Zentraedi fleet with her hideous singing (although I did like "We Will Win", but Yellow Dancer's version, not Minmei's LOL!). Some adjustments made are: Rick does NOT tell Minmei how he feels about her as he did in the original Robotech episode. However, here in the story, he doesn't talk to her to tell her he wants to break up with her completely either. So things are still up in the air between him and Minmei before he flies Admiral Hayes down to Alaska Base. On the way down to Alaska Base, Rick is caught in many dogfights and there is a delay in even getting to the window to re-enter earth. The Zentraedi fleet fires on earth and Hayes watches the destruction from Rick's VT. He tries to re-establish communications with Alaska Base but it is of no use. One of the provisions for Operation Maximum Impact, was to get off a shot from the Grand Cannon, even if it was badly damaged, so Hayes waits impatiently for some sign that the Cannon is still operable and this is where the story continues... ]   
  
  
  


* * * * * * * 

"I'm sorry sir, I still can't establish communications with Alaska Base, and now...I can't seem to pickup the bridge," said Rick as he fiddled with the various comm channel switches.   
Hayes wasn't paying attention to Rick, instead he was staring at the spot on the globe that was suppose to be Alaska Base. He saw a glow that he knew only too well and shouted, "Lieutenant take us to the farside of the planet ASAP! They're going to fire the Grand Cannon!"   
Rick didn't think to ask Hayes any questions and hit his afterburners and headed in the direction Hayes had told him. In a matter of a few minutes, just as Rick and Hayes got out of the line of fire, they saw the electromagnetic plume that was the result of the Grand Cannon and watched as groups of enemy ships evaporated.   
Hayes shook his fist, "Yes! It did work, just like it should. Come on TR, fire that puppy up again!"   
Rick and Admiral Hayes waited and waited. Hayes, suprisingly skilled at using VT controls, had the external camera zoom in as much as he could. He saw that the glow from Alaska Base was gone, indicating the Grand Cannon was offline.   
A group of battlepods started heading in Rick's direction and he spent the next hour battling them, Admiral Hayes acting as his weapons officer. After they were nearly clear of the enemy, Rick heard a loud noise and picked up strange and strong activity on his radar, and in another half minute they were blinded by a bright light that belonged to the battlecruiser that was defolding right on top of them.   
  
  
  


* * * * * * * 

Lisa had asked to be patched into the bridge so she could watch the battle but Doctor Wells felt it would be too taxing for her so Lisa had to resign herself to looking out the window to try and figure out what was going on. She managed to stay awake for an hour but fell asleep soon afterwards. When she woke up again, thankful that she could actually 'wake up' as opposed to her immobile state she had been in for so long, she could sense someone sitting beside her and quickly tried to focus her eyes, something she found difficult, but not impossible to do.   
"Well well well, look who finally decided to wake up," chided Claudia.   
Lisa could not help but smile as she looked at her best friend's smiling face.   
"How are you?" asked Lisa, still weak.   
"I'm not too bad actually, perhaps I should get minorly injured every once in awhile, Roy waits on me hand and foot, twenty-four hours a day, I think I could get used to that," said Claudia with a mischievious grin.   
Lisa smiled again, she had wanted to laugh but found she couldn't, her chest still felt tight and sometimes it was hard labor to breathe.   
"Speaking of waiting on hand and foot," said Claudia as she cocked her head to the side, "did you know that your father and Rick have been practically living here in the ICU?"   
"I know. I was out of it, but after my father arrived, I was able to hear what was going on," replied Lisa.   
Claudia's eyes widened, "Oh really? Do they know you heard everything they said?"   
Lisa shook her head ever so slightly, "No, I don't think so. I haven't told them yet."   
Claudia grew thoughtful then asked, "So, does that mean you heard that little conversation that Roy and I had with Rick?"   
"Yes," replied Lisa.   
"Honey, I'm sorry, I hope you aren't mad at us for telling Rick too much, but honey, can you honestly tell me that you would've told Rick how you felt about him anytime soon?" asked Claudia with a guilty expression on her face.   
"It's alright, you didn't really tell him everything, you hinted, and that was good enough. I just hope he got the hint," said Lisa as she labored to catch her breath.   
"Lisa, honey listen, why don't you let me do all the talking for now, you just rest up and save your strength," said Claudia, shifting into her motherly mode.   
Lisa nodded slightly and added, "One question though, how are they doing out there? My father, Rick."   
Claudia patted Lisa's hand, "No word yet honey, but you know, the Grand Cannon just fired not too long ago. From the looks of things it wiped out several battlegroups, which is good because we need all the help we can get."   
"I'd rather be up on the bridge right now," said Lisa.   
Claudia sat back and folded her arms, "Honey, you and me both. I feel like such a lame duck unable to work. They have Sammie working at your station right now and they wheeled Vanessa back up there too, they really needed her at Radar. Kim begged and cried to be let up onto the bridge and threatened to crawl up there if no one would take her, so after listening to her whine for an hour, Gloval finally let her go up there."   
Lisa smiled, then sighed.   
"I know honey, I wish I were up there too. We'll get back into action soon enough," added Claudia.   
"Rick kissed me," said Lisa with half a smile.   
"He did? Well, I'm going to have to run that one by Roy when he gets back and ask him what he makes of it," replied Claudia, not sounding all too surprised.   
"He said he wasn't doing it because of a guilty conscious. And before he left, I kissed him back," said Lisa.   
"Aha, no wonder why you're short of breath," poked Claudia.   
Lisa smirked and Claudia continued her teasing, "So, does the doctor know about this? If he found out he might ban Rick from the room for causing your heart rate to go up."   
Lisa felt the laugh coming but ended up coughing and Claudia quickly backed down, "Oh dear, I should calm down with the jokes for now, until you're stronger. Honey you better get some rest. I don't expect the boys to back for some time so why don't you rest up and when they get back you'll have plenty of energy to spend on them."   
Claudia nodded and patted Lisa's hand again and said, "I think I'll get some rest too, so I can be plenty rested when my flyboy comes back." Claudia winked then settled back in her reclinable wheelchair and closed her eyes.   
She didn't mention it to Lisa, but the earth was nearly totally destroyed. The fact weighed heavy upon her heart and her mind and she wanted to talk to someone about it, but Lisa was going through enough turmoil as it was and so Claudia decided to just wait it out and talk to Roy when he returned.   
  
  
  


* * * * * * * 

"Where the hell are we? What happened?" mumbled Admiral Hayes as he slowly came to.   
Rick, who had recovered quicker than Hayes, look around and saw that they were on solid ground, in gerwalk mode, and all around them, a barren wasteland.   
Rick could hear Hayes fiddling with the navigation screen and in a minute he heard Hayes say, "No, it can't be! This is Alaska Base!"   
Rick, shocked as if he had been struck by lightening, quickly got the damaged VT into a hover and scoured the surface of what used to be Alaska Base.   
"I'm going to try and establish some kind of contact," said Hayes quickly, already trying to find a good communication signal to snag on to.   
After 20 minutes of flying and unsuccessfully trying to reach anyone by radio, they gave up and decided to head towards the West Coast when they saw a shadow cast over them. They looked up and saw the SDF-1 descending from the sky, melted and twisted in various places, but remarkably still flightworthy.   
"Sammie, this is Admiral Hayes, can you hear me?"   
"Admiral! Are you with Rick? Uh...I mean, Lieutenant Hunter? Wait, I got your signal now. You two scared us! We thought we lost you! What is your status," replied a relieved Sammie.   
"We are still flight capable, but not for very long, we're also very low on fuel too. I think we have enough to make it back though, so don't bother sending any rescue teams over for us," replied Rick.   
"Yes, sir," answered Sammie, then she preceded to give them landing instructions.   


After 8 more hours of mop-up operations, as well as extinguishing other various battles that raged after Dolza's defeat, and trying to establish some kind of make-shift centralized command structure, Rick and Admiral Hayes ran into each other as they were making their way through the ICU waiting room.   
Rick saluted, "Admiral, sir."   
Hayes returned the salute and then shook Rick's hand, saying almost humorously, "Well Rick, it seems you have a penchant for saving Hayes' don't you?"   
Rick shrugged and offered a weak smile, "I guess it seems that way doesn't it?"   
"I want to thank you for saving my life out there today. We were in some pretty tight jams but thanks to your flying expertise we made it through," replied Hayes.   
Rick didn't feel very much like a hero. Making sure Lisa's father was unharmed was the least he could do for Lisa, moreover, it was the least he could do for Admiral Hayes. Over the past week and a half, Rick had found that although he had a disdain for high authority in general, he really liked Admiral Hayes. Maybe it was because, through all the stories Hayes told Rick about his younger days, Rick thought Hayes reminded him of himself a bit... a little bit brash and fiercely loyal to the men he commanded and not one to back down when he thought an order was wrong. And although Hayes was more of an adminstrator now, Rick could still see Hayes had not lost the character he had when was younger, and though he had made some rulings that seemed suspect and harsh, Rick learned that it was because Hayes' arm had been twisted by the rest of the Council. Resigning had not been an option for Hayes at that time, the Earth needed him as the Minister of Defense and he were to step-down, Armageddon might have come sooner than it had.   
Trying turn the praise away from himself, Rick said, "You were here first, you can go ahead and see Lisa, take your time, I think I'll go get something to eat then come back later."   
Hayes raised an eyebrow at Rick and replied, "Are you sure? I appreciate the gesture but I would think she'd want to see you first."   
Rick shrugged and Hayes continued, "Judging from the way you two kissed, that was my assumption."   
Rick's jaw dropped open and he stared at the Admiral with wide eyes. Hayes decided to have some fun watching Rick squirm so he continued in a monotone, "You kissed my daughter, twice. Just after she woke up from a two-week coma. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"   
"I...I...Admiral...sir! I just...I..." stammered Rick.   
Hayes gave him a stern glare and then burst out laughing.   
"It's alright my boy," said Hayes as he patted Rick on the shoulder.   
Rick, his jaw still hanging open, stared at the Admiral, completely confused.   
Hayes folded his arms and pushed Rick towards the door of the entrance to the ICU, "Go on, go ahead, I'm sure Lisa has been worrying about us, you."   
Rick slowly shuffled forward, mouth still open, unable to utter any sort of reply.   
Hayes laughed to himself as he watched Rick shuffle away, "Not the smartest I suppose, but that's not important I guess. Just as long as he makes Lisa happy and can take care of her then that's all that matters," he mused. 

It was near midnight, but the nurses had received the O-K to let Lisa have a couple of visitors, and Rick managed to slip into her room without objection.   
Rick quietly walked over to the bed and looked down to see a sleeping Lisa.   
Lisa was starting to doze off, she had been trying to watch the news reports throughout the evening and was extremely tired, but she sensed someone next to her and managed to open her eyes. The light was very dim and because her senses were not at their maximum capability yet, she couldn't focus her eyes enough to make out it was that was standing next to her.   
Rick saw Lisa's eyes open and said quietly, "Hello there Sleeping Beauty."   
'_Am I hallucinating?_' wondered Lisa.   
"Rick?" asked Lisa aloud, her voice sounding tired, but much clearer than when Rick had last spoken to her.   
"Hi," said Rick gently as he sat down on the chair next to Lisa's bed. "I didn't wake you did I?"   
"No, I was just dozing off. I've been trying to stay awake because I was hoping someone would come and see me and let me know how things were going," replied Lisa.   
Secretly, Lisa was overjoyed to see Rick and know that he made it through the battle but she still was wary about the whole situation and didn't want to let her guard down.   
Rick exhaled a long sigh and said somberly, "It's pretty bad out there. We, and your father especially, will have a very difficult job ahead of us."   
"My father's alright?" asked Lisa, her heart starting to beat a little bit faster. She had heard a rumor that Alaska Base had been destroyed and didn't know if her father had been there at the time of it's destruction.   
"There's no way I'd allow anything to happen to him, Lisa. And, I guess our guardian angels were watching over us out there. We were delayed several times and didn't make it to Alaska Base until after it was destroyed. If that isn't Divine Intervention, then I don't know what is," said Rick with a hint of wonderment.   
Lisa mulled it over for a moment then smiled at Rick, "Thank you, Rick. I don't know what I would've done if I lost my father, especially now, when it seems that he and I can come to some sort of reconcilliation."   
Rick shook his head, "Don't need to thank me. I'm glad to see that you and your father are getting along, you know, I really like your father. I guess, in some ways, he reminds me of my own father."   
Lisa was a bit surprised and tried to compare the two men, her knowledge of Pops Hunter coming from the numerous stories Rick had told her about him.   
"I guess so...a little bit anyways. I was really angry at my father, but after all the talks he had at my bedside this past week, now I understand why he's made some of the decisions he has," replied Lisa, still thinking things over in her head.   
Rick furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "What? Wait a minute, you were comatose weren't you? How did you hear what your father was saying?"   
'_Ooops_,' thought Lisa. '_Well, I'd have to tell them sooner or later..._'   
"Well," began Lisa, "I don't know exactly when it was, but I assume it was just shortly after my father arrived, I could hear everything that everyone was saying."   
Lisa saw a trace of fear in Rick's baby blue eyes and her heart sank. '_Now he's probably going to try and rescind everything he told me while he thought I was unconscious. He'll go back to Minmei and I'll be alone again..._'   
"So...then...did you hear all the things I've said to you over the past week?" asked Rick, his expression, surprisingly unreadable.   
"Yes, I did," said Lisa quietly.   
Rick got up and walked to the window and Lisa desperately tried to keep her tears from falling but she failed. In a shaky voice she said, "You don't have to explain, Rick. I know that you just said all that to try and keep me alive and get me to wake up, and I thank you for that. So if you're struggling over whether you should go back to Minmei or not, go. Don't hesitate because of me, because of a guilty conscious...especially because of a guilty conscious. Neither one of us will be happy if our relationship is based on obligation or guilt."   
Rick walked back over to Lisa's bedside and bent down a bit so that he was eye-level with her and she saw a kind of determination in his eyes and waited to hear what he had say.   
"Lisa, everything I've said to you, over the past two weeks..._everything_...I meant every word of everything I said. Nothing was a lie. When I told you how I really felt about you, it wasn't a lie. It wasn't said out of guilt..." Rick drew an uneven breath saw a tear roll down Lisa's cheek. He closed his eyes and took another uneven breath then continued. "I know, given our history, you probably don't believe me, and I don't blame you. If...if your feelings for me are the same as mines are for you, then please, let me know. But if you don't want me, then let me know that too, and I'll leave you alone."   
'_Do it now Lisa, you have to tell him..._'   
"Come closer, Rick," said Lisa quietly. Rick complied and bent closer to Lisa, then Lisa strained her neck a bit and kissed Rick until the cardiac monitor started beeping. Lisa rested back on her pillow and smiled at Rick.   
Rick, dazed momentarily, let a smirk form across his face as he finally managed to say, "I take that to mean your feelings are similar..."   
Lisa answered with a smirk of her own and said, "Quite possibly."   
Rick returned to the chair and then held Lisa's hand, "You know, your dad saw us kissing just before I left for battle. At first I thought he was going to chew me out, because when he confronted me about it he was so serious, but then he started laughing. He really had me going for awhile there."   
Lisa's eyes registered some surprise and she said, "He didn't get mad? Hmm...and he played a little trick on you... from what I have heard over the past week or so, between you two, I can honestly say that he likes you. And that's not an easy thing to do, to impress my father like that. He's very protective of me and I don't know how many dates of mine he scared away."   
Confused, Rick asked, "But why does he like me, of all people. I'm sure he hangs around with many important, powerful, and rich people, and I'm sure there's been a number of suitors for you. I'm nobody, no money, no power, I'm just a military pilot."   
"Rick, it doesn't matter if you're rich or powerful. Those things never impressed me nor my father. The most important thing is that you're a good person, brave, and full of integrity. And...it doesn't hurt to have a strange knack for always coming to my rescue," Lisa finished with a grin.   
Rick laughed and then shrugged his shoulders, "I can't promise you a mansion or diamonds, but what I can promise is that I'll lay down my life to protect you, and...I love you."   
Lisa was smiling through her tears and took a few seconds to compose herself before she said, "I love you too, Rick."   
Rick squeezed Lisa's hand and there was nothing more that needed to be said. The two, newly found in their love for each other, knew that it was a new journey they were undertaking, and though there might be trials and tribulations ahead, both of them felt they were up to the challenge.   


Rick departed, giving her another kiss and informing her that he would be back first thing in the morning. The door barely closed only to open again and this time the visitor was Admiral Hayes. Lisa smiled at him as he approached her and it delighted her father immensely.   
Lisa smiled at her father as he sat down next to her, causing him to reply quietly, "I can't remember the last time you ever smiled at me so much...it must be years..."   
Lisa knew what he meant; their constant arguments with each other seemed as if they would never cease and the rift between them was painful for them both. Now, there was a second chance at reconcilliation, and Lisa was going to make sure she didn't let it pass her by.   
"I can't remember either...father, I'm _so_ glad you're alright," said Lisa as she looked at her father with an unreadable look.   
Hayes gave her a strong, but careful hug and he whispered in her ear, "Lisa, do you believe in second chances?"   
"I do, I believe," replied Lisa earnestly.   
"I do too dear, and I think we've been given one today," said Hayes as he tiredly sat down.   
"Dad...I'm sorry, for everything...I let my stubborness and anger come between us for so long and I know now that whatever decisions you've made in the past were not to try and control me, but to look out for me and protect me. I do appreciate that father, I really do, but please, try and remember, I'm not a little girl anymore, and I can take care of myself...most of the time," ended Lisa, half crying and half smiling.   
Hayes patted Lisa's hand, "I know honey, I know. It's just, sometimes it's just so hard to stand back and let you learn life's lessons on your own."   
Lisa nodded, "I know dad, but that's the only way I'll learn, on my own."   
"I know, I know. But remember, if you ever need any help, I'm always here," replied Hayes earnestly.   
Lisa smiled and said, "So...starting from today on...could we start all over again, get to know each other again, be close like we were, so many years ago..."   
"I...I would like that...very much Lisa, very much..." said Hayes, his voice saturated with emotion.   
Lisa waited for herself and her father to regain their respective composures and then asked with a tiny hint of uncertainty, "About Rick...do you...do you like him?"   
Hayes smiled broadly, expecting that question sooner or later and he already had formulated his answer a long time ago, "Lisa...if you and Rick ever happen to end up getting married, someday....it would make me the happiest man on earth. I think he's a good man Lisa. He may have some more maturing to do and he might not be too bright when it comes to certain things, but the most important qualities I would hope for any husband of yours to possess are already there. He's honest, sensitive, caring, brave, full of integrity, and he'll defend your life till his dying breath. And, I think you two make such a handsome couple. Ah yes, I can see it now...my grandchildren will be absolutely perfect!"   
Lisa chuckled and replied with a fake annoyed, "Daaaad!" the way she used to do when she was younger.   
"I mean it Lisa, I think he is an excellent man," said Hayes seriously.   
Lisa didn't reply but was very thrilled with her father's approval of Rick. She then turned her thoughts to the descimated earth and wondered what kind of future she and the rest of mankind would have.   
"Dad, what about the global situation. What is going to happen?" asked Lisa.   
Hayes exhaled loudly and answered, "I don't know Lisa. We will just have to take each day one at a time. I don't know how much I will be involved with the government reconstruction, because I am already taking flack for not being on Earth when Dolza attacked."   
Lisa became instantly worried and asked, "They aren't going to court-martial you are they? You didn't know Dolza was coming, it was a surprise attack."   
"I don't know dear, we'll have to see how things play out, but the UEG is completely wiped out, and I am the only one left with the experience and knowledge that can help put it back together, or, whatever united government the survivors decide on. But...if they don't want me and at least don't court-martial me, I think I will just go home to New York, if our home is still there, and retire. Or stay here and act as an advisor to Gloval or something."   
Lisa looked out the window, watching as damaged mecha rolled by on flatbed trucks, and mused, "I can't wait to get back on my feet so I can get back to work. There's going to be so much to do."   
"Now Lisa, you should-" Hayes realized his paternal tone and stopped himself mid-sentence. He smiled at Lisa and said, "Yes dear, we'll help you get back on your feet as soon as we can, because I'm sure Henry will really need your expertise."   
Lisa smiled at her father then grew teary-eyed as she said, "Dad...I'm so glad you're here with me now. No matter how I acted in the past or what I said, I love you, I really do."   
Hayes nodded, too emotional to speak. He leaned over and kissed his daughter on the cheek then waited for a while before replying, "We all have a long road ahead of us, but as long as you're still in my life, I know I can make it through anything. And I want to make up for all the time together that we lost and I'll do anything to make sure that happens because you are the most important thing in my life, Lisa. I love you so much, and even though I might not say it that often, please know that I do love you more than my own life."   
"I know...daddy."   
"Lisa, whatever you do, wherever you decide to go, know that you have my support completely," replied Hayes.   
Lisa smiled and uttered, "Never be caught waiting on the wind..." remembering an old favorite line of advice her father always used to give her, "the same goes for you dad, where you go, whatever you decide to do, I'm behind you."   
Hayes chuckled, remembering the times he would tell Lisa that saying when she was younger. He shook his head then held onto Lisa's hand and thought about all his fears for the upcoming task of rebuilding ahead of them, but then Lisa squeezed his hand and his fears dissipated. He smiled at his daughter again and said confidently, "That's right dear, Hayes' are never caught waiting on the wind."   


(2) 

_(daughter)_   
_In the middle of the meadow I sit staring at my kite_   
_A ball of string and a paper dream that I could not make fly_   
_Then daddy pulled it to the sky, behind him as he ran_   
_And said, 'Girl, don't be caught waiting on the wind.'___

_(father)_   
_The time comes when a young girl wants to leave the nest and fly_   
_I stood there sad and proud and smiled through tears and said good bye_   
_I gave you roots, I gave you wings, and girl, I understand_   
_An eagle can't sit waiting on the wind___

_(together)_   
_If you rise for every challenge, if you run to catch this dream_   
_That star that you keep reaching for, is closer than it seems_   
_Heaven and earth reward all those who try and try again_   
_And will not be caught waiting on the wind...___

_(daughter)_   
_Whatever strength you find in me I thank my father for_   
_His wisdom, faith, and courage, set me on a steady course_   
_And when my sails are empty, their words lift me up again_   
_And I will not be caught waiting on the wind...___

_(together)_   
_If you rise for every challenge if you run to catch this dream_   
_That star that you keep reaching for, is closer than it seems_   
_Storms of life my force you to change courses now and then___

_(father)_   
_But never be caught waiting on the wind___

_(daughter)_   
_Never be caught waiting___

_(father)_   
_Never be caught___

_(together)_   
_waiting on the wind....._   
__

  
  


**THE END!!**   
------------ 

song credits:   
1) Evanescence - "Taking Over Me"   
2) Pam Tillis and Mel Tillis - "Waiting on the Wind" 

Yes yes, I know, this probably fizzled out at the end and you were probably expecting a huge chapter, but I needed to hurry and finish this story up NOW, because like I said in the note in my other chapter, I am going to be very busy and will not have time to make this an extremely long story, it was way longer than I expected in the first place :) 

Oh my, how unoriginal of me, I did a modification of the ending of DYRL, but hey, it's really hard to avoid a scene like that anyways. 

I decided to let Admiral Hayes be the one present when Lisa awoke because I felt he deserved it more than Rick. The way I figured it, the damaged relationship between Lisa and her father was more serious than her problems with Rick and I felt more sympathy for Admiral Hayes than I do Rick (as I'm sure several others feel the same way :) ). I really like Admiral Hayes, why? I don't know, I just do, and wish I could've spent more time writing about him, perhaps in another story sometime, when I get some free time, next year maybe... :) 

If anyone would like to add or re-write this story then by all means do so. Please post them under your own ff.net accounts. I originally was thinking of starting a user-submission thread which I would moderate/edit but that was rendered completely impossible by the new project I was given at work (the details being made more clear over the weekend now makes me wonder if I'll even have time to READ stories, let alone write them :( ) Again, and to Gemstone in particular, my sincerest apologies for not being able to carry out my plan for a user-submission thread. 

I'm still not giving up my cheerleading call, which is: PEOPLE PLEASE WRITE MORE RICK-LISA AND HIKARU-MISA (there really is a huge lacking of THOSE) STORIES!!! :)   



End file.
